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THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 



THE GERMAN FURY 
IN BELGIUM 

EXPERIENCES OF A NETHERLAND JOURNALIST 

DURING FOUR MONTHS WITH THE GERMAN 

ARMY IN BELGIUM 



BY 

L. MOKVELD 

WAR-CORRESPONDENT OF "DE TIJD' 



TRANSLATED BY C. THIEME, LONDON CORRESPONDENT 
OF "DE NIEUWE COURANT" 



WITH A PREFACE BY 

JOHN BUCHAN 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



.Q3M6 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OE AMERICA 



PREFACE 

Among the many books published on the behaviour 
of the German Army in Belgium, this account by 
a distinguished Dutch journalist must occupy a 
unique place. It is written by a neutral, who held, 
at the start, no brief for either side. It is written 
by an eye-witness, who chronicles not what he 
heard, but what he saw. It is written also by one 
who mingled with the German troops and was pres- 
ent at the inception of the whole compaign of out- 
rage. Mr. Mokveld took his life in his hands when, 
with great courage and devotion, he visited Vise and 
Liege and Louvain at the most critical moments. 
His character of neutral journalist was only a flimsy 
protection among the drunken and excited German 
troops. But his boldness was justified, for after 
many adventures he came safely through, and he 
was enabled in those early weeks to see the whole 
of Belgium from Liege to the Yser and from Ant- 
werp to Dinant. The result is an admirable piece of 
war-correspondence, which bears on every page the 
proofs of shrewd observation and a sincere love of 
truth and honest dealing. 

There is much in Mr. Mokveld's narrative to 
interest the historian. For example, he gives a 
fuller account than we have yet had of that obscure 
period when Liege had fallen, but its northern forts 



vi PREFACE 

were still holding out. But it is less a history of 
the campaign than a chronicle of those lesser inci- 
dents of war which reveal the character of the com- 
batants. No more crushing indictment of German 
methods has been issued, the more crushing since 
it is so fair and reasonable. The author has very 
readily set down on the credit side any act of Ger- 
man humanity or courtesy which he witnessed or 
heard of. But the credit side is meagre and the 
black list of crimes portentous. Episodes like the 
burning of Vise and the treatment of British pris- 
oners in the train at Landen would be hard to match 
in history for squalid horror. 

Two facts are made clear by Mr. Mokveld's book, 
if, indeed, the world has ever doubted them. The 
first is that the German authorities, believing their 
victory to be beyond question, deliberately sanc- 
tioned a campaign of frightfulness. They did not 
imagine that they would ever be held to account. 
They wished to terrorise their opponents by show- 
ing them what resistance involved. The atrocities 
were not the blunders of drink-sodden reservists, 
but the result of the theories of half-witted military 
pedants. The second is that the invading armies 
were as nervous as a hysterical woman. Those 
would-be conquerors of the world were frightened 
by their own shadows. A shot fired by accident 
from a German rifle led to tales of attacks by Bel- 
gian francs-tireurs and then to indiscriminate murder 
by way of revenge. Mr. Mokveld examined the 
legends of treacherous Belgian assaults and the 
mutilation of the German wounded, and found 
them in every case wholly baseless. No German 



PREFACE vii 

•had ever seen these things happen, but had only 
heard of them. When definite details were given, 
Mr. Mokveld tracked them down and found them 
false. The Belgian atrocities lacked even that 
slender justification which belongs to reprisals. 
They were the work of a drunken and "rattled" 
soldiery — for fear is apt to make men brutal — 
deliberately encouraged by the authorities, who 
for this purpose relaxed the bonds of military dis- 
cipline. When the battle of the Marne changed 
the complexion of affairs, these authorities grew 
scared and repudiated the policy, but Belgium re- 
mains a witness of what Germany's triumph means 
for her victims. 

John Buchan. 



INTRODUCTION 

A few words by way of introduction. 

I had wished to publish this book a long time 
ago, because I think it my duty to submit to the 
opinion of the public the things which I witnessed 
in the unfortunate land of the Belgians, and where 
I was present at such important events as an impar- 
tial spectator. I call myself an impartial spectator, 
for if this book be anti-German, it should not be 
forgotten that the facts give it that tendency. 

That the book was not published sooner is because 
I could not foresee more than others how terribly 
long the war would last; and I should have preferred 
to wait till the end in order to insert several reports 
which I know are being kept in the occupied part, 
in order to acquaint the whole world with the full 
truth about the behaviour of the Germans. As 
long as the Germans keep the upper hand in Belgium, 
such a publication cannot take place without danger 
to several persons. 

But because the German libels go on accusing 
the Belgium people of horrible francs-tireurs acts, 
I have thought that I ought not to wait any longer 
before giving my evidence to the public. 

This book does not attempt to give more than 
evidence of the truth. It does not claim to have 
literary distinction; I have not even tried to give 
it that stamp. By relating various events succes- 

ix 



x INTRODUCTION 

sively witnessed, which have no mutual connection, 
this would be very difficult. 

My stories are not exaggerated or touched up, 
but are true to reality. That is the reason why the 
German authorities have driven me away from 
Belgium, and tried to get hold of me to punish 
me. On that side they are afraid that the truth 
be known. 

A long time after I had left Belgium I got hold 
of the Black List, in which I am mentioned twice 
over among eighty-seven other persons; once as 
Hokveld-Journalist and again as Mokveld-C or re- 
spondent. The list was published by me in De Tijd 
of June 2nd, 191 5. 

That I was "wanted" is proved by the fact that 
two persons have had the greatest trouble because 
they were mistaken for the Mokveld-Correspondent 
of De Tijd. My colleague Kemper passed a fort- 
night in prison in Brussels, accused of having written 
various articles in De Tijd, which were written by 
me, and I relate, in the chapter "Round about 
Bilsen," what Mr. Van Wersch, another Nether- 
lander, suffered for the same reason. 

But although the Germans are afraid to let the 
truth be known, there is no reason why I should 
withhold my evidence. On the contrary, I will try 
to do everything I can to make public opinion do 
justice to the unfortunate Belgians, trodden down 
and insulted, falsely and vilely libelled by their 
oppressors, and accused of offences of which they 
never were guilty. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ix 

CHAPTER 

I On the Way to Li£ge 15 

II In Lifjge and Back to Maastricht . . 40 

III Round About Lifjge 56 

IV Vise Destroyed: A Premeditated Crime 72 
V Francs-Tireurs ? 87 

VI With the Flemings 95 

VII Lifjge After the Occupation .... 108 

VIII Louvain Destroyed 113 

IX Louvain Under the Mailed Fist . . . 132 
X Along the Meuse to Huy, Andenne, and 

Namur 147 

XI From Maastricht to the French Fron- 
tier: The Destruction of Dinant . . 156 
XII On the Battle-Fields 170 

XIII Round About Bilsen 176 

XIV During the Siege of Antwerp . . . 195 
XV The Ill-treatment of British Wounded 217 

XVI OntheYser • ... 234 



XI 



THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 



THE GERMAN FURY 
IN BELGIUM 

CHAPTER I 

ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 

When De Tijd sent me to Belgium as its corre- 
spondent, I had not the faintest notion practically 
how to perform my duties, for the simple reason 
that I could not apprehend at all how a modern 
war might be conducted. But I was destined to 
receive my first impressions when still on Nether- 
land 1 territory and after my arrival at Maastricht. 
On the hot afternoon of August 7th, 19 14, the 
much-delayed train rumbled into the station at Maas- 
tricht. A dense mass stood in front of the building. 
Men, women, and children were crowded there and 
pushed each other weeping, shouting, and question- 
ing. Families and friends tried to find each other, 
and many of the folk of Maastricht assisted the poor 
creatures, who, nervously excited, wept and wailed 

1 The translator uses the words "The Netherlands, Nether- 
lander," and "Netherland" on purpose. The Germans call them- 
selves "Deutsch,"' the Americans call them "Dutch," the Flemish 
use "Duts" or "Duuts," and the Netherlanders "Duitsch"; so it 
is desirable to exchange "Dutch" for "Netherland." 

15 



16 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

for a father, for wife and children lost in the crowd. 
It was painful, pitiful, this sight of hundreds of 
fugitives, who, although now safe, constantly feared 
that death was near, and anxiously clutched small 
parcels, which for the most part contained worthless 
trifles hurriedly snatched up when they fled. 

And over these nervous and terrified thousands 
at Maastricht rolled from afar the dull roar of the 
guns, thunder-like bursts from which had frightened 
them so terribly. 

The streets leading to the bridge over the Meuse 
and into the town were also densely thronged with 
refugees. Here and there large groups listened to 
the stories told, with profusion of tears, of sufferings 
inflicted, depicted in far harsher colours than could 
have been possible. But the wretched creatures 
exaggerated unconsciously; in their affrighted state 
they had seen things that had never occurred. 

Suddenly every one in the Vrijthof ran in the 
same direction. I waited calmly, and saw pass by 
a tragically long train of hooded carts and other 
peasants' conveyances. The drivers walked by the 
side of the horses, the Red Cross flag flew from the 
carriages, fresh clean straw covered their floor, on 
which wounded soldiers writhed in excruciating 
pain. The crowd did not press nearer, but, standing 
silently in long rows, let the sad procession pass by. 
Such were the first impressions of the war got in 
these days; nobody uttered a sound, but many 
stealthily brushed a tear away. 

Thus it went on all day long: motors and other 
conveyances travelled to and fro between the battle- 
fields and hospitals at Maastricht; fugitives moved 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 17 

about in streets and squares, upsetting each other 
more and more by fantastic stories. 

As dusk came on nearly the whole population of 
Maastricht, with all their temporary guests, formed 
an endless procession and went to invoke God's 
mercy by the Virgin Mary's intercession. They 
went to Our Lady's Church, in which stands the 
miraculous statue of Sancta Maria Stella Maris. 
The procession filled all the principal streets and 
squares of the town. I took my stand at the corner 
of the Vrijthof, where all marched past me, men, 
women, and children, all praying aloud, with loud 
voices beseeching: "Our Lady, Star of the Sea, 
pray for us . . . pray for us . . . pray for us . . . !" 

At the same time bells rang . . . and guns roared. 

Group after group went by, and I heard French 
and Netherland, the Maastricht vernacular and 
sweet Flemish spoken, all sorts of tongues and modes 
of utterance. The men were bare-headed, and each 
let his rosary slip through his fingers. Soon after 
the head of the procession reached Our Lady Square 
the huge church was packed, and those who could not 
find room inside stood in the square, which also very 
soon was full with these thousands oT people in a 
dense mass, like so many blades of grass in a mead- 
ow. 

However large the crowd, it was silent as death 
when the priest Jacobs addressed them. He spoke 
words of encouragement, hope, and confidence, and 
urged them to send up their prayers to God Al- 
mighty — prayers for peace. When he had ended, 
these thousands sang the "Hymn to Mary," in such 
perfect order as if only one superhuman body sent 



18 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

forth an immensely powerful sound from earth to 
Heaven. 

As I was listening to that hymn the storms in my 
heart subsided — storms raised by so many scenes 
witnessed during the day; but as soon as the sonorous 
voices were still, I heard again the dull boom . . . 
boom . . . boom ... of the guns. That dire real- 
ityl . . . 

The next morning I got up early, having been 
unable to sleep. I realised already that my task 
was difficult, dangerous, and full of responsibility, 
for I had to find out and communicate to the public 
the truth about events, which would be related as 
beautiful or horrid, according to the interests of 
my informants. It was dangerous, because I might 
meet with the same fate that seemed to have been 
inflicted on so many civilians already. 

Dressed in my sporting attire, and carrying some 
necessaries in a knapsack, I started early, going to- 
wards Vise along the canal. As I came to the 
Netherland boundary-stone and noticed that of 
Belgium, I had a moment of doubt, but it lasted for 
a second only. In order to divert my thoughts 
I walked somewhat more briskly, but was stopped 
suddenly on Belgian ground by a custom-house 
officer. I was astonished to see that official there 
still, for the Germans must be quite near and — as 
I had been told — small patrols had advanced fre- 
quently to this point. My papers were found to 
be in order, and the man seemed very happy to 
meet a journalist. 

"It is a pity, sir, that you did not arrive a day 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 19 

sooner, then you might have witnessed great bar- 
barity of the Germans. If you walk on a little 
farther along the canal, you will see three persons 
hanging from a tree near Haccourt; one of these 
is a boy of fourteen. Nobody was allowed on the 
road, and as a patrol met these three persons, they 
concluded immediately that they were francs-tireurs, 
strung them up on the tree, without a trial of any 
sort, and in addition shot each a bullet through the 
head. To-day another patrol arrived and had the 
effrontery to tell the members of the Maastricht 
Red Cross that the boy had murdered a captain. 
And we are not allowed to remove the corpses. 
Horrible! . . . horrible!" 

"Yes," I reply, "it is bad, very bad, but is it 
really all true?" 

"True? True, sir? You go and look for your- 
self! And let me tell you one thing — there are 
no francs-tireurs here! We know quite well what 
we may do and what not, and only a moment ago 
I received a message from the Minister of the In- 
terior, saying that non-combatants who shoot at the 
enemy expose themselves to danger and their fellow- 
citizens to retaliations." 

I asked him how things were farther on along the 
Meuse, but he knew nothing. He was stationed 
here, he said, and was going to stay as long as pos- 
sible. As soon as the Germans arrived, most people 
fled, and those who had stayed on were no longer 
allowed to leave. So he lacked all information, and 
only understood that fierce fighting was going on, 
as was confirmed by the incessant thunder of the 
guns. Fort Pontisse was, moreover, not so very far 



W THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

away, and frequently we could distinctly tell, by their 
whistling sound, in which direction the shells flew. 

After a few encouraging words I walked on along 
the solitary, deserted road, leaving the canal on the 
right, until a by-way took me to the bank of the 
Meuse, opposite the Netherland frontier village 
Eysden. I entered a deserted inn. After shouting 
for a long time, the inn-keeper appeared, looked 
shyly at me, remaining constantly close by the door 
of his room. His attitude showed that he was 
prepared to fly at the slightest suspicious movement 
on my part; but as soon as I had convinced him 
that I was a Netherland journalist, he became more 
friendly, and called his wife and daughters, so that 
I might tell them all I knew. They were very de- 
sirous to know how the war went ... in the Neth- 
erlands, and whether we were fighting the Germans 
or the English? It was very difficult to make them 
understand that they were under a misapprehension, 
but when I had at last succeeded in this, I started 
in my turn to ask them what they thought of my in- 
tention to go farther. 

"Go farther, sir? But . . . but . . . sir, don't 
do that! The Germans shoot every civilian whom 
they set eyes on." 

"Oh, go on!" I answered. "I don't think that 
I need fear anything of the kind. I am in any case 
a Netherlander!" 

"Netherlander or not, it does not matter. Who- 
soever one be, every civilian is shot down by 
them." 

"Are they at a great distance from here?" 

"Not at all! If you step outside, you can see 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 21 

them standing, ten minutes from here. Near 
Lixhe they threw a bridge across the Meuse. It 
is the third already which they put down, for each 
time they are smashed from the fort. Oh, it is 
horrible; there must surely fall a number of dead, 
and here we have seen corpses in the Meuse already. 
. . . But I do not understand how you ventured to 
come here. . . ." 

Well, I did not quite fancy the prospect of being 
shot like a dog, and as I had not yet come into touch 
with the Germans, it was difficult to say whether 
these people exaggerated or not. But just opposite 
was Eysden, and I made up my mind to go there 
for further information. 

Netherland soldiers and inhabitants of the village 
bustled about along the opposite river-bank. I 
shouted as loudly as possible; and when at last I 
succeeded in drawing their attention, I made them 
understand that I wanted to be pulled across in 
the little boat, which in ordinary times served as 
a ferry. A short consultation took place now on 
the opposite side, after which a soldier, who clearly 
possessed a strong voice, came as near as possible to 
the waterside and, making a trumpet of his two 
hands, roared: 

"Not allowed!" 

"Why not?" 

"We are neutrals!" 

"So am I; I am a Netherlander!" 

"Possibly! Not allowed!" 

And at the same moment he turned round and 
joined the others. 

So I was left there. The Netherlanders refused 



9£ THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

to pull me across in consequence of an exaggerated 
fear of violating their neutrality; the Germans in 
front of me intended, it was said, to shoot me down 
as soon as I ventured to get near. But to retrace 
my steps . . . that is a thing I had never done yet. 
For a few moments I stood there undecided, but 
then made up my mind to see what was going to 
happen, and went on, in spite of the warnings of 
the kind-hearted innkeeper and his family, who called 
out to me to return. 

The terrible thunder of the guns, of both be- 
siegers and besieged, vibrated through the air. In 
the distance I noticed a couple of men, probably 
German soldiers, but a pontoon-bridge was nowhere 
to be seen. After a few minutes, however, I reached 
a spot where the Meuse makes a short curve, and 
had scarcely walked round it, when I saw, only a 
couple of hundred yards away, the bridge in ques- 
tion, across which a long train of vehicles was pass- 
ing, loaded with victuals, hay, straw, etc. 

On this side hundreds of soldiers were standing; 
they had taken off their uniforms in the fierce heat, 
and were busy loading and unloading and changing 
horses. From time to time the entire scene was 
hidden by the smoke from numerous burning houses 
at Lixhe, quite near the river. I walked in the 
most casual way, in an unconcerned attitude, looked 
calmly at some of the houses I passed, and which 
were for the greater part destroyed. The walls 
were pierced by bullets, the rooms generally burnt 
out; in the front gardens lay all sorts of furniture, 
dragged out of the house and then smashed to pieces. 

The road was all strewn with straw. I approached 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 23 

the bridge past burning farms and villas. There 
the pieces of broken furniture were even lying in 
the road, and I had to go warily so that I should not 
stumble. The soldiers looked at me as if they were 
amused, but I went up to them in the same uncon- 
cerned manner and asked them to take me to their 
commanding officer. 

"What do you want with him?" 

"I am a Netherland journalist, and want to ask 
the commander's permission to go to Liege." 

"Oh, you are a Netherlander; then come along." 

They took me to two officers who stood near the 
bridge, and told them that I "pretended" to be a 
Netherland journalist. Having proved this by my 
papers, the officers gave me an escort of three men, 
who conducted me to the bridge-commander, on the 
other side of the Meuse. 

I had to walk along the very edge of the unstable 
bridge in order to avoid the wheels of the passing 
carriages, which shook the whole bridge and made 
the rather loose boards clatter. In the meantime, 
at no considerable distance, some shells fell in the 
Meuse, fired at the bridge from Port Pontisse. Yet, 
I did not mind it at all, as all these new experiences 
stunned me, so to speak; the incessant hellish noises 
of the batteries, the burning houses, the smoke 
swooping down, the excited soldiers. . . . 

As we crossed the bridge, I asked my escort why 
these houses were set on fire. I heard then, for 
the first time, that "they had been shooting," and 
they told me of cowardly civilians, who shot from 
the windows at unsuspicious soldiers, or stabbed 
them treacherously. But of course they had ex- 



24 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

perienced nothing of the kind; it had happened to 
troops who were now moving ahead. They had, 
however, taken part in the revenge, and told 
of it with glittering eyes: how they fired the 
houses of francs-tireurs and then shot the people 
who, nearly stifled, appeared at the windows; how 
in "holy" anger, in order to avenge their comrades, 
they subsequently entered the houses and destroyed 
everything. I did not answer, did not know what 
to think of it, but shuddered, because it was so 
gruesome. 

They told this, while we were waiting on a couple 
of protruding boards of the pontoon-bridge, so as 
to allow some extremely wide carts to pass. Once 
again shells exploded, a couple of hundred yards 
behind us, and one made a hole in the bank quite 
near. 

"Horrible!" I sighed. "Have they not yet hit 
the bridge?" 

"Oh yes, it has been destroyed already a couple 
of times, but we shall teach them a lesson! Why 
did not the Belgians allow us to pass through their 
country? What can their little army do against 
us? As soon as a sufficient number have crossed 
we shall go for these forts, then on to Brussels, 
and within a fortnight we shall be in Paris. Liege 
we have taken already." 

"It will cost a great many men!" 

"We have plenty of them; but many of us fall 
by the treacherous shooting of the civilians; they 
are swine, swine ! And these Belgian women . . . 
they are the dirtiest bitches . . . beastly swine . . ." 

The man got more and more excited, but then 






ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 25 

he was more than "half-seas over." The smoke 
made him cough and he stuck in the middle of his 
"swine." He made me shudder, and I hastened 
to pull out a packet of cigarettes, some of which 
I gave to him and his mates. In consequence the 
two others became more communicative, and in 
touching harmony assured me that: 

"Oh yes, the Netherlanders are our friends; they 
remain neutral. And that is the best, for otherwise 
the whole lot would be smashed up, exactly as here 
in Belgium." 

They did not understand, of course, that poor 
Belgium would have liked nothing better than to 
remain neutral also. 

Those wide carts had passed us now, and we could 
proceed slowly. The bridge led to a farmhouse 
with tall trees and underwood. They took me to 
the right, to a densely overgrown spot, where a 
clearing had been made amidst some smaller shrubs. 
In the centre stood a table covered with a shining 
white cloth, and a goodly number of wine-bottles 
and glasses. Half a dozen officers in fine uniforms, 
gilt collars and epaulettes, were seated around it. 

The sight of that small group, hidden among the 
green foliage, was as brilliant as it was surprising. 
One of the officers, clearly the highest in rank, 
summoned us to come nearer, and asked the soldiers 
for an explanation. Standing smartly at attention, 
they gave it, as a school-child might haltingly recite 
a lesson learned by heart. The officer whom I 
thought it convenient to call "Captain" looked 
searchingly at me and then began: 

"Have you got papers?" 



26 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"Yes, captain." 

I pulled them out: birth certificate, certificate of 
good conduct, foreign passport, and press-card, 
which were examined the one after the other. 

"Are they genuine?" 

"Of course, captain; everything is properly 
signed, stamped, and legalised." 

"And what do you want to write about?" 

"I don't know yet. The things I see . . . and 
... of course that cannot do harm to the German 
army." 

"Hm! Hm! All right. So you intend to write 
friendly about us?" 

"Certainly, certainly, sir! Exactly because we 
hear so many lies from foreign countries about the 
Germans, I want to try and find out the truth for 
myself." 

"Is that so? Well, the Netherlanders are our 
friends, and have so much in common with our 
people." 

"Certainly, captain; as a matter of fact we are 
of the same race." 

But here he looked at me in a curious manner, 
scrutinising my face, as if he asked himself: "Is he 
pulling my leg, or not?" But not a muscle in my 
face moved, so that the "Captain" nodded ap- 
provingly . . . and wrote out a pass for me to go 
to Vise ! I was not allowed to go to Liege, for, as 
he said, he did not yet know himself how matters 
stood there. The other officers overwhelmed me 
with questions: how matters stood in The Nether- 
lands, and whether Great Britain had already 
declared war against us? I think that at that ques- 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 27 

tion I looked utterly perplexed, for in the same 
breath they told me all they knew about the danger 
of war for The Netherlands: Great Britain first 
sent an ultimatum to The Netherlands, to force her 
into joining the Allies against Germany, and as she 
had refused, the British Fleet was now on its way 
to Flushing. I explained to them in detail that they 
were utterly wrong, but they believed only a half of 
what I said. 

There was a continuous coming and going at the 
bridge-command, for when I left the shrubberies 
a great many soldiers of high and low rank, with 
portfolios and documents, were waiting outside. 
The soldiers were to escort me back across the 
bridge, so that I might go on to Vise along the other 
bank. 

Before I got to the bridge I saw something grue- 
some: a number of corpses of soldiers were lying 
about and others were brought in ... a little 
farther away, on the farm, there they were digging. 
. . . I looked away quickly; I was not yet accus- 
tomed to that sort of thing. Most likely they were 
men killed a moment ago by shells aimed at the 
bridge, for wounded men were also brought in on 
stretchers. 

At the other end of the bridge I was left by my 
escort, and went on alone; on my left the Meuse, 
on my right burning houses, above me hissing and 
whistling shells, that came down in front of me and 
behind me, with tremendous explosions, throwing 
the loose earth high into the air. 

In Devant-le-Pont, a hamlet opposite Vise, the 
doors of all the houses stood open, as a sign that the 



28 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

inhabitants did not propose to offer any resistance 
to the Germans. After much shouting the land- 
lady of a cafe appeared, distressingly nervous, but 
doing her utmost to look unconcerned. 

U A glass of beer, madame." 

"If you please." 

"The guns are horrid, madame; are you not 
afraid?" 

"No, sir, we must hope for the best." 

"Have the Germans done no harm here yet?" 

"Oh no, sir, not at all!" 

"Are they tolerably kind?" 

"Oh, quite nice people, sir!" 

Her reserve told me that I would not get much 
information here, and, finishing my beer, I asked: 

"How much is it, madame?" 

"This? Nothing, sir, nothing." 

"Nothing! But, madame, I want to pay for what 
I drink!" 

"No, no, I won't take anything for it. It is 
hot, is it not, and a soldier ought to get some- 
thing. ..." 

I understood only then why the woman was so 
full of praise of the Germans, although she was 
shaking in her shoes: she thought I was a soldier! 
How heavily weighed the oppressor's hand on the 
wretched population, if now already the honest 
Belgian heart became hypocritical! 

I had great trouble to make her understand that 
I was a Netherlander; and that changed at once 
her opinion for the Germans. She told me then 
that her husband and children had fled to The 
Netherlands, as had most of the inhabitants, and 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 29 

that she was left behind merely because she dawdled 
too long. And now she was constantly afraid that 
they might fire her house as they did the others, and 
murder her . . . for such had been the fate of 
several of the villagers. Even whole families had 
been killed. 

Many civilians had been put to death, accused of 
having shot from the houses, and others for refus- 
ing to give up requisitioned food. Probably they 
had none, as preceding military divisions had already 
taken away all there was. Then some civilians were 
killed for refusing to work for the enemy. The 
houses of all these "condemned" had been burnt, 
and everything the soldiers fancied was looted. As 
a matter of fact, nearly all the soldiers I met later 
on were drunk, and they worried me constantly. 
Only when I had proved to be a Netherlander, they 
behaved a little better, and started abusing u the 
cursed Belgians," who, according to them, were all 
francs-tireurs. 

A short distance beyond this little cafe lies the 
large bridge across the Meuse. Before the Germans 
arrived it was partly destroyed by the Belgians, but 
so inadequately that obviously the enemy could re- 
pair it easily. Bombs were therefore fired regularly 
from Fort Pontisse at the bridge, and only an 
hour ago it had been hit, with the result that a big 
hole was made in the undamaged part. In the 
road also big holes were made by the exploding 
projectiles. Having passed underneath the viaduct 
of the bridge, I found myself opposite Vise on the 
sloping bank of the Meuse. Two boys had been 
commanded by the Germans to work the ferry- 



30 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

boat for them, and after I had shown them my 
passport, they took me to the other side. 

It was a fine summer afternoon, and the sun shone 
on the many bright, whitewashed walls of the old 
and neat little town, built close to the rapidly flow- 
ing river. There was quiet in the streets, although 
nearly all the inhabitants were sitting on their 
chairs in the streets. But nobody ventured to 
move about, and conversations were held only in 
whispers. As I walked through the village street 
in my quaint get-up, they pushed their chairs a 
little closer together as if frightened, and looked 
shyly at me as if they feared that I was not the 
harbinger of much good. And all these hundreds of 
people saluted me humbly, almost cringingly, which 
filled me with pity. 

Vise had not been burnt yet, as had been reported 
in The Netherlands. Only here and there had the 
shells done some damage, and hundreds of window- 
panes had been burst by the vibration of the air. 
As a token of submission to the invader, small white 
flags hung from all the windows, and these, along 
the whole length of a street, made a decidedly 
lamentable impression. 

The inhabitants had already had a variety of 
experiences. On Tuesday, August 4th, the first 
German troops arrived before the little town. The 
gendarmes stationed there offered resistance to the 
invading enemy, but, being hopelessly outnumbered, 
they were all shot down. As they were lying on the 
ground, badly wounded, Dr. Frits Goffin, head of 
St. Hadelin College, came in great haste as soon as 
he heard the shooting. 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 31 

All the wounded were Roman Catholics, and as 
they saw the approaching priest, they implored him 
in a loud voice to give them absolution of sins, 
some making an act of contrition. The priest was 
unable to come near each of them, and therefore 
called out in a loud voice: "My Jesus, be merci- 
ful!" He then gave them all absolution of sins. 
But as he kneeled down to perform this sacred task, 
a hostile bullet whizzed past his ear, and several 
soldiers who ran by aimed at him, so that he had to 
seek safety behind a tree. I saw with my own eyes 
five bullet-holes in the tree that was pointed out 
to me. 

In those first days many civilians were killed, and 
not only in Vise, but still more in the surrounding 
villages, Mouland and Berneaux, which were soon 
burnt down and where many a good man was 
brought low by the murderous bullets. The savage 
soldiers killed the cattle also, and a large number of 
carcases had been lying about for days. 

At Vise many men had been commanded to do 
certain kinds of work, cutting down trees, making 
of roads, bridges, and so on. Many of them never 
returned, because they refused to do the humiliating 
work and were shot. Among these there were even 
aged people; and I myself stood by the death-bed 
of a man of ninety, who had been forced to assist 
in building a bridge, until the poor wretch broke 
down and was carried to St. Hadelin College, turned 
into a hospital by Dr. Goffin; there he died. 

No wonder that the inhabitants were afraid and 
looked askance at me as they mistook me for a 
German. 



32 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

On this day, August 8th, the reign of terror was 
still in full force. There were repeated threats to 
burn the town and to kill the inhabitants if they 
objected to do work or to deliver certain goods, 
especially wine and gin, of which thousands of 
bottles were requisitioned daily. Several times a 
day they were summoned by a bell and informed 
what the invader wanted, the necessary threats be- 
ing added to the command. And the inhabitants, 
in mortal fear, no longer trusted each other, but 
searched each other's houses for things that might 
be delivered to satisfy the Germans. 

The entire neighbourhood was still being bom- 
barded from the forts to the north of Liege ; several 
German divisions succeeded, however, in crossing 
the Meuse near Lixhe. In spite of the shell-fire 
they passed the pontoon-bridge there, turned into 
a by-way leading to the canal, near Haccourt, crossed 
one of the canal-bridges, of which not one had been 
destroyed, and along another by-way, came to the 
main road from Maastricht to Tongres, at a spot 
about three miles from the last-named town. 

The shelling went on during the night, and all 
that time the inhabitants remained in their cellars. 

Although I had got farther on my way than I 
had dared to expect, my journalist's heart longed 
for more. If I could get to Liege, which was said 
to have just been taken! But my passport stated 
that I was only allowed to go to Vise. I thought 
the matter out, and the longer I thought, the 
stronger became my desire to go on; and at last 
I decided to do it. 

Near the outskirts of the town I found barricades 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 33 

which, however, seemed not to have been used, but 
stray shells had knocked large pieces out of the low, 
wide wall between the road and the Meuse's flowing 
water. 

There was not much traffic. Only here and there 
stood some German soldiers, or seriously wounded 
men were lying on mattresses and chairs. Nearly 
every house by the roadside had been turned into 
an emergency hospital, for from all sides they 
brought in soldiers wounded by shells that had ex- 
ploded amidst the advancing divisions. 

The road along which I walked, the main road 
between Vise and Liege, was laid under fire from 
various forts, and every moment I saw on my left 
clouds rise up from the rocky heights that run along 
the whole of the Meuse. These clouds were partly 
formed by smoke from the guns mounted by the 
Germans against the forts, partly by volumes of 
earth thrown up by the projectiles from the broken- 
up soil. 

I myself ran great risks too, but I did not mind, 
and walked on, moved by a consuming desire to get 
to Liege, and then back to Maastricht, to be able 
to wire to my paper that I had been to Liege 
only just after it was taken by the Germans, and 
that the news, wired from Germany to the Nether- 
land papers, that the forts had been taken was 
untrue. 

I had a short chat with the wounded men near 
the various houses, on demand showed my passport 
to those in authority, and was advised as a friendly 
Netherlander to return, as it was extremely dan- 
gerous on the road. But I did not dream of doing 



34 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

this, as long as I was not compelled, and went on 
towards Liege amidst this maddening thunder. 

I had walked another three miles, when a big 
crowd of fugitives met me. They seemed to have 
come a long way, for the majority could hardly walk 
on, and had taken off their shoes and boots, on 
account of the scorching heat, going on barefooted 
in the shade of the tall trees. It was a procession, 
numbering hundreds of men, women, and children. 
The aged were supported, the babies carried. Most 
of them had a small parcel on their back or under 
their arm. They seemed tired to death, had dark 
red faces, and betrayed great fear and nervousness. 
I crossed the road to speak to them, and as soon 
as they noticed it the whole crowd, numbering hun- 
dreds of people, stood still, creeping closer to- 
gether, women and girls trying hard to hide them- 
selves behind the men, and these doffed their caps 
timidly. 

I was really sorry that I had dressed myself in 
that grey Norfolk suit, long stockings, a knapsack 
strapped to the back, and a leather strap with a 
water-bottle. The unfortunate creatures thought 
that I was a German soldier. I was bewildered for 
a moment, but then guessed their thoughts and 
hastened to comfort them. 

I could not get much information from them. 
Twenty spoke at the same time; in halting, inco- 
herent words they tried to tell me of their experi- 
ences, but I could only catch: killed . . . murders 
. . . fire . . . guns. . . . After much trouble I 
gathered that they came from the villages to the 
north of Liege, where the Germans had told them 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 35 

that on that same day, within an hour, everything 
would be burned down. Everybody had left these 
places, a good many had gone to Liege, but these 
people did not think it safe there either, and wanted 
to go on to The Netherlands 

After giving them some advice how to get to 
The Netherlands, and offering some words of sym- 
pathy, I wanted to go on, but as they realised this, 
the poor, kind creatures surrounded me ; many wom- 
en began to weep, and from all sides they cried: 

"To Liege? You want to go to Liege? But, sir! 
— but, sir! We fled to escape death, because the 
Germans are going to burn down everything and 
shoot everybody. Please don't, sir; they'll kill you 
. . . kill you . . . shoot you . . . kill you!" 

"Come, come," I replied, touched by the kind 
anxiety of these people. "Come, come; it won't 
be as bad as all that, and, then, I am a Nether- 
lander." 

That "being a Netherlander" had become my 
stock-argument, and, as a matter of fact, it made 
me feel calmer. Quietly I made myself free of the 
surrounding crowd, in order to proceed on my way; 
but then they got hold of my arms and gently tried 
to induce me to go with them, so I had to speak 
more firmly to make them understand that they 
could not prevail on me. When at last I was able 
to resume my march, they looked back frequently, 
shaking their heads, and in their anxiety for me, 
their fellow-creature, they seemed to forget for a 
moment their own hardly bearable sorrows. 

A moment later a gigantic motor-car came racing 
down at a great speed. Six soldiers stood up in it, 



36 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

their rifles pointed at me. I thought that they 
intended to shoot me and everybody they might 
meet, but a seventh soldier standing by the side of 
the chauffeur made a movement with his arms, from 
which I understood that he wanted me to put my 
hands up. I did so. 

It is a simple affair, this putting up one's hands, 
but even at such a moment a free citizen has a 
strong objection against being compelled to this by 
others, who are no more than one's self, who ask 
it without any right, except the might derived from 
the weapon in their hands. 

When they had passed, I looked round at the peo- 
ple I had left a moment ago. . . . There they lay 
in the road, kneeling, lifting their trembling hands, 
although the motor-car was already a couple of 
hundred yards away. 

Argenteau was not damaged much, but the in- 
habitants remained quietly inside their houses, or 
probably stayed in their cellars, for fear of the 
shells that tore through the air constantly. 

By and by I began to feel that I had already 
walked about twenty miles in this great heat, but 
I would not think of stopping before reaching my 
goal. 

At Cherath railway-carriages were lying in the 
road at the level-crossing of Vise-Liege line, farther 
on barbed-wire cut into pieces, felled trees, and so 
on. German soldiers had moved these things out 
of the way, and motor-cars could pass by again. In 
the village itself I saw a man, with a white armlet, 
posting up a bill, and as I had seen similar damp 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 37 

bills sticking on the walls in the other villages, I 
drew nearer to read it. 
The bill ran as follows: — 

"Community of . . . 

"To the inhabitants. 

"The powerful German army, victorious in our 
district, has promised to respect our land and private 
possessions. 

"In the circumstances in which we are placed it is 
necessary to retain the greatest possible tranquillity 
and calm. 

"The burgomaster informs the population that 
any utterance contrary to the regulations will be 
severely punished. 

"The Burgomaster.' ' 

The bill-poster replied "yes" or "no" to my ques- 
tions, whichever answer fitted, and as soon as he 
had finished his task he hurriedly trotted off. I 
did not see any other inhabitant. 

Outside Cherath a motor-car stood between some 
partially removed trees. Two officers and three 
soldiers stood around a map which they had laid 
on the ground, and with them was a young girl, 
scarcely twenty years old. She was weeping, and 
pointed out something on the map, obviously com- 
pelled to give information. One of the officers 
stopped me, was clearly quite satisfied with my 
papers, but told me that I was not allowed to go 
on without a permit from the military command. 
Then I pulled out of my pocket, as if of great im- 
portance, the scrap of paper which the commanding 
officer at the bridge near Lixhe had given me. The 



38 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

other had scarcely seen the German letters and Ger- 
man stamp when he nodded his head approvingly, 
and quickly I put the thing back, so that he might 
not notice that I was allowed only to go to Vise. 

At Jupile I saw a pontoon-bridge, not in use for 
the moment. Just before this place a slightly slop- 
ing road leads from the hills to the eastern bank 
of the Meuse and the main road Vise-Liege. Along 
this road descended at that moment an immense 
military force — uhlans, cuirassiers, infantry, more 
cuirassiers, artillery, munition and forage-carts. 
The train seemed endless, and although I stood there 
looking at it for quite a long time, the end had not 
passed me. 

It was an imposing sight to see all these various 
divisions in their brilliant uniforms coming down 
along the road, the soldiers' uniforms still without 
a stain, the horses in new, fine, strong leather har- 
ness, and the rumbling and jolting guns. The sol- 
diers sang patriotic songs, and among them rode the 
officers, proud and imperious, many with a monocle, 
looking round superciliously. 

I was the only civilian in that road, and the 
soldiers, with much curiosity, stared at me. When- 
ever I noticed an officer, I gave an elaborate mili- 
tary salute, and with such an air that the officers, 
although hesitating at first, did not fail to return 
the salute. 

After reaching the main road they turned to the 
right towards Vise, probably in order to try to cross 
the Meuse near Lixhe and then proceed to Tongres 
along the above-mentioned road. It would not be 
an easy undertaking, for the forts refused to keep 



ON THE WAY TO LIEGE 39 

silent, and already many a wounded man was car- 
ried on a comrade's horse. 

Liege now loomed up in the distance, and the 
nearer I got, the more civilians I met. They all 
wore a white armlet, and walked timidly and ner- 
vously by the side of the road or street, starting at 
each thunder-clap of the guns. Near the entrance 
to the town a small crowd stood on one of the hills, 
looking at a flying-machine moving from fort to 
fort and over the city, obviously investigating the 
effect of the German siege-guns. 

At seven o'clock in the evening I entered Liege ; 
and so far I had achieved my end. 






CHAPTER II 

IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 

A glorious summer evening, quite refreshing after 
the exhausting heat of the day. Nature invited to 
restfulness, and so much the more cruel sounded the 
incessant thunder of the guns, which also boomed 
from the citadel. As soon as the Germans had 
taken possession of this old, dilapidated fortress 
they proceeded to drag, their guns on to it, and 
trained them on the surrounding forts. 

The streets offered the same aspect as those at 
Vise. From each house floated the pitiful little 
white flag; the people sat together on their 
"steeps," for they did not venture out in the 
streets. Everywhere I was again saluted in the 
same cringingly polite manner, and eyed with sus- 
picion. 

Crowds of soldiers moved through the main 
streets, revelling, shouting, screaming in their mad 
frenzy of victors. They sat, or stood, or danced in 
the cafes, and the electrical pianos and organs had 
been started again "by order." Doors and windows 
were opened wide, and through the streets sounded 
forth the song "Deutschland iiber Alles" (Germany 
before all other), which affected the inhabitants 

40 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 41 

as a provocation and a challenge. Oh ! one could 
see so clearly how thousands of citizens suffered 
from it, how they felt hurt in their tenderest senti- 
ments. Dull and depressed they stared in front of 
them, and whenever their set features relaxed, it 
was a scornful grin. 

From warehouses and from shops bales of corn, 
flour, sugar, and other goods were taken, thrown in 
heaps and then placed on all sorts of carts and 
motors. In the most frequented parts military bands 
had taken their stand, and played amidst the loud 
jubilation of the soldiers. 

I walked about a little longer to examine the 
damage done. The fine Pont des Arches was for the 
greater part destroyed by the retreating Belgians, as 
well as the Pont Maghin. This is a pity, especially 
as regards the first-named bridge, so famous as a 
work of art, and the more so as other bridges had 
not been touched and could be used by the Germans. 
The bombardment did not damage the town to 
any great extent, but it was remarkable that the 
largest houses had suffered most. 

Having walked some thirty miles that day, I be- 
gan to feel a serious need for rest. But when I 
applied, there was no room anywhere in the hotels, 
and where there was room they told me the contrary 
after a critical glance at my outfit. 

I then tried to find the nunnery of the Sosurs de 
la Misericorde, where one of my cousins had taken 
the veil. At last, in the Rue des Clarisses I found 
the huge door of the monastery, and rang the bell. 
After a few moments a small trellised shutter in the 
stout door was opened ajar, and a tremulous voice 



42 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

asked in French what I wanted. I assumed that 
it was one of the nuns, but I could see nothing 
through that narrow jar. 

"Sister," I said, "I am a cousin of Soeur Eulalie, 
and should like to see her, to know how she is and 
take her greetings to her family in The Nether- 
lands." 

"Soeur Eulalie! . . . Soeur Eulalie! . . . You 
. . . you . . . are a . . . cousin . . . of . . . Soeur 
Eulalie?" 

The terrified little sister was unable to stammer 
anything more, and in great fear suddenly closed 
the little shutter again. 

There I was left ! After waiting a while I rang 
the bell once more, and once more the little shutter 
was opened in the same timid manner. 

"Now, look here, sister, I am a cousin of 
Soeur . . ." 

"No, no, sir, your cousin ... is not here." 

Bang! The shutter was closed again. But I did 
not give it up, for I needed the sisters' assistance 
to find a shelter somewhere. Once more I made 
the bell to clang, and although I was kept waiting 
a little longer, at last I heard voices whispering 
behind the gate and once more something appeared 
behind the trellis. 

"Sister," I said then, "if you will only ask Soeur 
Eulalie to come to this gate she will recognise me, 
of course?" 

"She is your cousin, you say?" 

"Certainly, sister. Tell her that Bart of Uncle 
Henry is here." Again I was switched off, but the 
communication was this time restored after a few 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 43 

moments, and then I heard a joyful and surprised 
exclamation : 

"Oh! Bart, is it you ?" 

So at last the lock of the heavy door screeched, 
and I was admitted. I noticed that about a score 
of sisters had gathered behind the gate and were 
anxiously discussing the "strange occurrence." My 
meeting with Soeur Eulalie, however, was so cordial 
that the good nuns lost all anxiety, and I was taken 
inside accompanied by nearly all the inmates of the 
convent. 

They first wanted me to explain what put it into 
my head to come to Liege, and how I had managed 
to get there; but as the sisters heard of my empty 
stomach and my thirty miles, they would not listen 
to another word before I had put myself round a 
good square meal. 

In the meantime they themselves had a word or 
two to say about the fright I gave them; for when 
I stood at the door they mistook me in my sporting 
habit for a German officer, and the top of my water- 
bottle for the butt of a revolver! 

The work of these sisters is the education of 
neglected children, and they spoke about their fears 
during the last momentous days. During the 
bombardment they stayed night and day with all 
those little ones in the heavily vaulted cellars of the 
nunnery, praying all the time before the Blessed 
Sacrament that had been removed from the chapel 
and taken into the cellar for safety. 

They constantly heard the boom, boom of the 
shells exploding near by, and each time thought that 
their last hour had struck. The gloomy cellar 



44 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

depressed them still more, and nobody really be- 
lieved that there was any chance of being saved. So 
the little sisters prayed on, preparing each other for 
death, and looking for the approaching end in quiet 
resignation. 

For the moment all they knew was that the Ger- 
mans were in the town, as none of them yet had 
ventured outside the building. At present their 
great fear was that Germans might be billeted on 
them. . . . Oh! they might take everything if only 
they did not come themselves. 

When I left I got a lot of addresses of relations 
in The Netherlands, and undertook to send a post- 
card to each of these. They also gave me an intro- 
duction to the proprietor of an hotel whom they 
knew, in which they asked him to give me a bed; 
and thus armed I succeeded at last. It was high 
time too, for at nine o'clock everyone had to be 
at home. In the hotel everything was dark, for 
there was no gas in the town. At last I could lie 
down on my bed, and had a good rest, although I 
could not sleep a wink. I was too tired and had 
seen and experienced too much that day. 

The next morning at six I was out and about 
again. I had not been able to get any breakfast, for 
the people themselves had nothing. The Germans 
had called at all the hotels and shops requisitioning 
everything in stock to feed the thousands who had 
invaded Liege like so many locusts. The inhabitants 
practically starved during those days, and carefully 
saved up bits of bread already as hard as bricks. 
It was a good thing that the night before I had 
eaten something at the nunnery, for although at a 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 45 

shop I offered first one, and later on two francs 
for a piece of bread, I could not get any. 

All the forts thundered away again, and the guns 
of the Germans were also busy on the citadel and 
the various surrounding heights. Already early in 
the morning a terrible and suffocating smoke of fire 
and gunpowder hovered over Liege. The smoke 
came down also from the burning villages, like 
Bressoux, on the slopes of the hills near Liege. 
The flames flared up from the houses and offered a 
melancholy sight. 

German officers told me, with full particulars, 
how the inhabitants of those burning villages had 
offered German soldiers poisoned cocoa, coffee, and 
cigarettes, for which crime three hundred civilians 
had been shot during the night in a Liege square. 

As even high officers told me those things, not 
without some emotion, I began to believe them 
and wrote something about them to my paper. But 
what was made clear to me at a later visit! That 
there was not a word of truth in the whole story 
of that poisoning; that on that day and in that 
square no shooting had taken place; that a couple 
of days before the population had been ordered 
to leave their houses within two hours without any 
reason being given; and afterwards several houses 
had simply been burned down. 

The Liege people were already up and about, and 
wandered through the streets full of fear, for all 
sorts of rumours were heard — that civilians were 
murdered, the town was to be burned down, and 
that a start would be made very soon. As they 
looked at those burning hamlets yonder they be- 



46 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

lieved the rumours, and went nearly mad for fear; 
the men as well as the women could not help them- 
selves, and wept. During the night various posters 
were stuck on the walls about military action. The 
following is the translation of one of these : — 

"The municipal Government of Liege remind 
their fellow-citizens, and all staying within this city, 
that international law most strictly forbids civilians 
to commit hostilities against the German soldiers 
occupying the country. 

"Every attack on German troops by others than 
the military in uniform not only exposes those who 
may be guilty to be shot summarily, but will also 
bring terrible consequences on leading citizens of 
Liege now detained in the citadel as hostages by the 
Commander of the German troops. These hostages 
are : — 

"i. The Right Rev. Rutten, bishop of Liege. 

"2. Kleyer, burgomaster of Liege. 

"3. Gregoire, permanent deputy. 

"4. Armand Flechet, senator. 

"5. Van Zuylen, senator. 

"6. Eduard Peltzer, senator. 

"7. Colleaux, senator. 

"8. de Ponthiere, member of the Town Council. 

"9. Van Hoeyaerden, member of the Town Coun- 
cil. 

"10. Falloise, alderman. 

"Bishop Rutten and Mr. Kleyer are allowed to 
leave the citadel for the present, but remain at the 
disposition of the German commanders as hostages. 

"We beseech all residents in the municipality to 
guard the highest interests of all the inhabitants and 
of those who are hostages of the German Army, and 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 47 

not to commit any assault on the soldiers of this 
army. 

"We remind the citizens that by order of the gen- 
eral commanding the German troops, those who have 
arms in their possession must deliver them imme- 
diately to the authorities at the Provincial Palace 
under penalty of being shot. 

"The Acting Burgomaster, 

"V. Henault. 
"Liege, 

"August 8th." 

Fear reigned everywhere in the bustling streets; 
people shouted at each other that the villages burned 
already, that by and by they would start with the 
town, that all civilians would be killed, and other 
terrible things. The Germans looked at all this 
with cynical composure, and when I asked some of 
them what the truth was, they shrugged their 
shoulders, said that they knew nothing about it, but 
that it might be true, because all Belgians were 
swine who shot at the soldiers or poisoned them. 
All of them were furious because the Belgians did 
not allow them to march through their country. 

Fugitives arrived from the surrounding villages, 
who also spoke of nothing but arson, destruction, 
and murder. They frightened the Liege population 
still more, hundreds of whom packed up some of 
their belongings and fled. They stumbled and fell 
across the barricades in the streets, blinded as they 
were by fear, and blinded also by the smoke which 
settled down on the city and polluted the air. 

Matters stood so in Liege on the morning of 
August 9th, when the second day of the occupation 



48 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

by the Germans had not yet passed. The Belgian 
field army, which had bravely defended the ground 
under the protection of the forts, and inflicted 
heavy losses upon the Germans, had to retreat before 
their superior numbers, leaving the further defence 
of the Meuse to the forts. But a high price had 
been paid for Liege, for the German losses were 
immense, and on the ninth they were still busy 
burying their dead. The Germans lost many men, 
especially near Lixhe and the Forts Bachon and 
Fleron. 

At that moment the possession of Liege was of 
little advantage to the Germans, as on this 9th of 
August the Belgians still held all the forts. This 
was the most important news that I was about to 
send to The Netherlands, for when I left the 
Netherland newspapers had published the news 
wired from Berlin that all the forts had fallen. 

But the Germans were efficient, for during the 
night they had laid down the rails on which in the 
morning they transported parts of the heavy ord- 
nance that would demolish all the Belgian defences. 

A few minutes after I left the town a scene drew 
my attention. A lady stood there with a little girl; 
the lady seemed to urge the child to do something 
to which it objected. She refused to take a bag 
full of various small parcels pressed upon her, and 
clutched hold of the lady's skirts. I wanted to 
know what was the matter, got a little nearer, and 
was amazed to hear them both speak Netherland. 
I could not help asking what the trouble was and 
whether I might be of service. 

"No, no, sir," the lady said. "Oh, oh, it is so 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 49 

terrible! By and by the Germans will burn Liege 
and kill us all. She is the little daughter of my 
brother at Maastricht, and came to visit us a few 
days before war broke out, but now she will be 
killed too, for she refuses to go away." 

"But, madame, you do not mean to send that 
child to Maastricht by itself?" 

"It must be done, surely, it must be done ! That 
is her only chance of escape, and if she stops here 
she will be killed with the rest of us. Oh! . . . 
oh! . . ." 

"But really, madame, that is only senseless gossip 
of the people. You need not be afraid, the Germans 
will not be so cruel as all that!" 

"Not? Oh! they are sure to do it. All the 
villages are burning already. The smoke suffocates 
us here. In Bressoux there is not a house left 
standing, and in other villages all civilians have been 
killed, men, women, and children. Not even the 
tiniest babies escaped. . . . Oh! . . . and now it 
is Liege's turn!" 

I knew about Bressoux. I had seen the flames 
burst out from many houses, and I had reliable 
information also from other villages about the 
slaughter that took place there, although this lady 
of course exaggerated when she said that "not even 
the tiniest babies escaped." 

Need I say that I did all I could to make the 
woman a little more reasonable, and make her un- 
derstand that it would not do to let a child of ten 
walk by itself from Liege to Maastricht, and least 
of all in these dire times. But I could not make 
her see this, and this instance proves all the more, 



50 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

perhaps, how upset the inhabitants of Liege were 
that morning; they were nearly out of their senses 
for fear. 

Of course I did not allow the little girl to go by 
herself, but took her with me. It was a wearying 
expedition in the excessive heat of that day. Very 
soon the child was no longer able to carry her small 
belongings, and, though already sufficiently loaded 
myself, I had to take her bundle as well. She was 
scarcely able to walk more than a thousand yards at 
a stretch, and had then to sit down on the grass by 
the roadside and rest. She did not quite under- 
stand what was going on, but she had an undefined 
feeling of fear on that long, deserted road, where 
we did not meet anybody except some well-hidden 
or stealthily moving German patrols who suddenly 
pointed their rifles at us. 

After the explanations required of us they allowed 
us to go on. The incessant roar of the guns made 
the girl tremble for fear, and the stinging smoke 
made her cough. After much trouble we got at 
last as far as Herstal, where I had promised her a 
short rest. 

This fine large village, actually a suburb of Liege, 
was quite deserted, not a living being was to be 
seen. I entered shops and cafes, called at the top 
of my voice, but got no reply anywhere. I was 
inclined to believe that everybody had fled. And 
they would have been quite right too, for huge 
columns of smoke rose up from the heights around 
the place, four or five in a row, after a booming and 
rolling peal like thunder had seemed to rend the sky. 

The German artillery had taken up their positions 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 51 

here, and bombarded the forts in their immediate 
neighbourhood. These did not fail to answer, and 
rained shells on the enemy's batteries. One heard 
their hissing, which came nearer and nearer, until 
they fell on the slopes or the tops of the hills and 
burst with a terrific explosion. Many a time we 
saw this happen only a few hundred yards away. 
Then the air trembled, and I felt as if my legs were 
blown from underneath me. Broken windows too 
fell clattering on the "stoeps." 

We entered another cafe, and once more I shouted 
for the inhabitants at the top of my voice. At last 
I heard a feeble sound somewhere in the hall, which 
I entered, but as I saw no one there, I called out 
once more. Then I heard distinctly, and knew 
whence the answer came. I opened a door, behind 
which stairs led to the cellar, and from there I was 
at last able to speak to some of the Herstal people. 
I heard that all of them stayed in their cellars for 
fear of the bombardment. 

My request to allow the child to stay at the cafe 
for half an hour was granted, and I went through 
the village towards the place whence the German 
batteries sent their destructive fire. At last I got 
as far as the top of a hill, from which I could see 
two forts shrouded in a cloud of smoke, which was 
also the case with the German batteries. 

I could not stop there long, for I was actually 
within range. I saw a number of shells explode and 
twice hit a farmhouse, which was destroyed for the 
greater part. So I returned as quickly as possible 
to my little protegee, and went on with her, follow- 



52 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

ing the road as far as the canal, and then along this 
to Maastricht. 

On one of the hills, slightly to the south of 
Haccourt, on the west bank of the Meuse and the 
canal, a German battery was firing at Fort Pontisse. 
The gunners there were quite kind, and they felt 
no fear at all, for although they shelled the fort 
continuously, it seemed that nothing was done by 
way of reply to their fire. The shells from the fort 
flew hissing over our heads, in the direction of 
Lixhe, which proved that Fort Pontisse was still 
chiefly busy with the pontoon-bridge at that place. 

Until now we had walked along the right bank 
of the canal, until we crossed one of the many 
bridges. The little girl was well-nigh exhausted; 
from time to time I gave her a rest, and then again 
I carried her a part of the way. 

A good many soldiers were lying round about 
the high cement factory of Haccourt. The factory 
itself seemed to be used as a station for observations, 
for suddenly a voice roared from a top window: 
"Stop those people!" And we were stopped and 
taken to a small table where three officers were 
sitting drinking wine. The colonel asked for my 
papers, which he did not consider sufficient, as I 
had no passport from some German military 
authority. So I drew out again the bridge-com- 
mander's scrap of paper which said that I was per- 
mitted to go from Lixhe to Vise. 

"Is this then the road to Vise?" 

"No, sir, I am returning from there." 

"Where then is Vise?" 

"That way, sir!" 



IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 5$ 

"That way? But how did you get here then?" 

"You see, sir, the bridge across the Meuse has 
been destroyed, and in order to get back I had to 
walk first towards . . . towards . . . Liege . . . 
and . . . and . . . and then they ferried me over 
somewhere down there, and told me that I had to 
go along the canal to get to Maastricht." 

"Is that so? Well, it is not very clear! And 
that little girl?" 

"That is a Netherland girl, sir, who was staying 
at her aunt's at Liege ... I mean to say at Vise, 
and whom I take now with me to Maastricht." 

The officer went on shaking his head at my an- 
swers, and I felt as if this might be the end of my 
fine little adventure. But I could not tell him that 
I had gone to Liege with that permit for Vise ! 

At Fort Pontisse or Lierce they seemed to have 
noticed that the factory was a station for observa- 
tion. As the officer was still thinking about my case, 
one of those infernal monster shells crashed down 
among a group of soldiers, only some yards away. 
Those who were not hit ran away, but they came 
back soon, and took up seven or eight comrades, 
whom they carried into the factory. I shuddered 
when I saw what had happened, and through the 
shock the sight gave me I involuntarily jerked my 
arms. 

"Stand still!" the officer thundered. 

He looked for a moment at the spot where the 
deaths happened, from which the victims were car- 
ried away, and then suddenly asked in a kinder tone 
of voice: 



54 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"Is there any further news about the war in The 
Netherlands?" 

I saw that I must take advantage of his changed 
mood and his curiosity, and I hastened to reply : 

"Yes, that the French are advancing towards 
Liege, and that the British have landed in Belgium." 

"What?" 

"It is as I tell you!" 

"But are you sure? Where are the French now, 
and where did the British land?" 

"Well, all the Netherland papers have extensive 
official reports about it. The French are now at 
Namur and the British landed troops at Ostend. . . ." 

"Wait! wait! wait!" 

Quickly he summoned an orderly and gave some 
orders, and a few minutes later four more officers 
drew round the table, on which a large map of 
Belgium was displayed. Their tone became at once 
charmingly sweet and kind, and a soldier offered 
me some lemonade from small bottles kept cool in 
a basin filled with cold water. 

I did not feel very comfortable after what had 
happened to those soldiers who lost their lives so 
cruelly sudden, or in any case had been seriously 
wounded, while the officers took little notice 
of them. But it was desirable to behave as dis- 
creetly as possible, and so to get a permit to 
Maastricht. 

I had to repeat everything about the advance 
of the French and the landing of the British, whilst 
they followed my story on the map. But I was 
soon in a cold sweat, for of course I knew practically 
nothing, neither of the French nor of the British, 






IN LIEGE AND BACK TO MAASTRICHT 55 

and each time when one of the officers pressed for 
details I was in mortal fear that I might contradict 
myself. But I stuck to my guns until the end, and 
assured them that the French had crossed the Belgian 
frontier near Givet, and were now near Namur, 
whereas the British, disembarking at Ostend, had 
advanced as far as Ghent. 

As soon as they had got all the information they 
required, the commanding officer ordered a patrol 
of cyclists of six men to leave their kit and rifles 
behind, but to take a Browning, and deliver a rapidly 
written letter at Liege. 

They were now very friendly, and spoke even 
with great kindliness about the Netherlanders in 
general. They let me proceed also on my way to 
Maastricht, giving me their best wishes. 

My little protegee was, however, soon very tired 
and complained that her feet ached. I had to carry 
her for nearly a mile and a half before we arrived 
at the Netherland Custom House, where I left her 
behind, as she was now safe. I went on to Maas- 
tricht alone, wired to my paper, and then saw the 
worried, but soon extremely happy parents of the 
little girl. They went at once to the Netherland 
frontier to take their child home. 

I had succeeded. I had been in Liege, the first 
foreign journalist who got there after her fall, and 
was able to contradict the numerous reports about 
the conquest of the forts which had made the round 
of the newspapers for several days. 



CHAPTER III 

ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 

During the fights round the forts I made a good 
many tours and was able to contradict several 
German reports about alleged successes. The atrosi- 
ties in the villages around Liege did not cease, 
and constantly fresh crowds of refugees came to 
Maastricht. 

In order to examine once more the state of affairs 
around Liege, I decided to pay another visit to that 
town. 

Starting in the early morning of August 15th, 
I arrived at Vise without much trouble, after having 
been led across the Lixhe bridge once more. Since 
my first visit the bridge had been destroyed three 
times over, and this new one seemed very weak. 
As I stood there looking at it, a motor lorry had to 
cross it, and the bridge gave way near the bank. 
Another motor had then to pull the lorry up to 
the top of the bank, and this made the bridge give 
way still further. 

For the rest the transports were not much 
troubled now, for .obviously the bridge was no 
longer the objective of the Belgian guns. At Vise 
I was even told that Fort Pontisse had just been 

56 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 57 

taken and only Lierce could harass the troops, who, 
after crossing the bridge, advanced towards Ton- 
geren. 

Many things had happened at Vise since my first 
visit. Under the pretext that the church spire 
could indicate to Fort Pontisse in which direction 
to shoot, parafin had been poured over church and 
spire and fire set to them. It was a venerable 
ancient structure, built ten centuries ago, the fine 
stained windows of which were well known. 

The inhabitants looked upon the church as a 
special sanctuary, as the bones of St. Hadelin were 
kept there. Before the fire these relics had been 
removed to the vicarage secretly, and then to St. 
Hadelin College, the only large building that es- 
caped the general destruction next day. 

Immediately after the church was set on fire, the 
dean was arrested, as well as the burgomaster and 
five reverend sisters. These last-mentioned had 
been in prison a fortnight, when at last the Ger- 
mans discovered that the little sisters were of Ger- 
man nationality. The Very Reverend Dean had 
been treated very badly during his captivity. 

There was dire want in the little town, for the 
Germans had been requisitioning everything until 
there was nothing left. And as during the first days 
of the war all traffic had been stopped, it was im- 
possible to bring in fresh supplies. The pieces of 
bread the people still had were like bricks, and 
several days old; and yet I could not get any of it. 

But the German troops had ample provisions for 
themselves, and as an officer noticed that I went all 
over the town to find some food in one of the 



58 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

restaurants, he offered me, the "friendly" Nether- 
lander, something to eat at the Guard House. This 
I declined, however, for I could not have enjoyed 
bread taken from the starving population. 

There was still a real reign of terror, and con- 
stantly the town-crier's bell was heard in the streets, 
informing the people that the victors required 
something or other. Only a few days ago it was 
announced that all bicycles had to be delivered at 
the bridge within twenty-four hours. Any person 
who after that time was found in possession of such 
a vehicle would be shot, and his house burned down. 
With similar threats all arms were requisitioned, 
but with the explicit addition that this referred also 
to old, and broken arms, or those which had been 
taken to pieces. Eatables and drinkables were also 
constantly claimed under threats of arson. 

From Vise I went again across the Meuse to the 
road along the canal. Nearing Haccourt, I noticed 
that Fort Pontisse was actually silent, but Lierce 
still in full action. The Germans had mounted 
long-range guns on the hills between Lancey and 
Haccourt, whence they could place Fort Lierce un- 
der fire. A German officer, after some coaxing, 
allowed me to witness the operations for a short 
time. I found a place near some heavy guns, and 
sat down amid some underwood. The shooting 
from Lierce was very fierce, but only by the plumes 
of smoke could I tell whereabouts the fort might be. 
The shells came down near us, but during the half 
hour of my stop not one made a hit. They all fell 
short of us. 

It was a cruel sight. At a tolerably quick pace 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 59 

hundreds of soldiers marched out in the direction 
of the fort, dragging light ordnance with them. One 
of the officers explained to me that the big guns 
could not yet operate here ; and now a division of 
foot-artillery was commanded to occupy a small hill 
near the fort. The big guns had to support them 
on the way. The guns roared as if all the thunder- 
bolts of heaven had been flung into space. The 
smoke of the powder poisoned the air and made 
me cough. Gradually my surroundings were en- 
veloped in a thin haze, which became denser and 
more suffocating the longer the guns roared. And 
at last those hundreds of men, dragging their guns 
along the byways, looked merely like shades. 

For quite a quarter of an hour they seemed to 
proceed successfully, as obviously not one shell ex- 
ploded in their neighbourhood. But suddenly all 
along their line dark masses several yards high 
rose up. This was the effect of numerous exceed- 
ingly well-aimed shells on the dry, loose sand. Soon 
the men were surrounded by those thick clouds of 
dust, and only during the first few minutes I saw 
here and there one of those shades in human form 
tumble down, evidently hit by one of the projectiles. 
Then I saw nothing for a long while, excepting the 
thick wall of dust, which seemed to remain standing 
up, for constantly the shells threw up anew the earth 
that had only just fallen down. 

The dust-wall extended gradually as the distance 
grew covered by the Germans in their flight to 
their former positions. But at last we saw the first 
men emerge in complete disorder from that driving 
cloud. Some on the right, others on the left, here 



60 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and there also small groups which courageously 
dragged their guns with them, as they saved them- 
selves from that infernal downpour. 

Five minutes later the smoke had disappeared 
almost, and I was able to see what had happened 
on the field in front of me. Terrible ! On all sides 
lay scattered the lads, who but a short time ago 
started with so much enthusiasm, and here and 
there a gun knocked over, five, six corpses lying 
around it. 

In front of me, behind me, on all sides, the guns 
boomed, clouds of dust and smoke filled the air, 
making it impossible to see much, which made the 
awe and terror endurable; but after the air became 
clear again, and the sun shed glowing light on the 
beautiful fields, it was terrible to think that all 
those dots in the plain were the bodies of young 
men, cruelly crushed by the infernal products of 
human ingenuity. It was agony to see here and 
there a body rising up, merely to fall down again 
immediately, or an arm waving as if invoking help. 

And by my side stood officers and soldiers raging 
and cursing. To them came the returning men, 
blood running along their faces from insignificant 
wounds, and they bawled and bellowed, and thun- 
dered with a thousand curses that they wanted to go 
back and try again. How ghastly they rolled their 
eyes in frenzied excitement ! Some pointing at me 
asked the officer who I was, and he explained. 
Then I had to listen to endless imprecations against 
the civilian population of Belgium, who, according 
to them, consisted entirely of francs-tireurs, who 
all of them deserved to be shot, and to have their 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 61 

houses burned down. To repeat the coarse words 
which they sputtered out in their rage would only 
cause disgust. 

The officer assured me that a new effort would be 
made soon, as they were commanded to take Pon- 
tisse and Lierce at any price, the seventh and ninth 
regiment of foot-artillery of Cologne being selected 
for the purpose. 

I did not want to witness that second attack, and, 
after thanking the officer, resumed my journey along 
the canal-road to Liege. 

Near Herstal the Germans were crossing by the 
large bridge, which the Belgians had preserved to 
their own disadvantage. 

In Liege things were no longer so depressing as at 
the time of my first visit. There was some traffic 
in the streets, and by order of the German authori- 
ties the shops had been reopened. 

In a meadow east of the city I saw three big guns 
mounted, the biggest I had seen as yet. They kept 
up a continuous and powerful cannonade at the 
forts near the town, that had not yet been taken. 
There were three of them left, of which Loncin 
was the most important. 

A little farther away they were still busy with 
Lierce, but excepting these four, all the forts were 
now taken by the Germans. I stood there for a 
moment, gazing at these cannon, the presence of 
which was clearly unknown to the Belgians, for their 
artillery took no notice of them. Only the day 
before these guns had started shelling the forts, and 
on the evening of August 15th they had silenced two 
of them ; but Loncin kept up the fight. 



62 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

During the evening I was granted an audience by 
the Right Reverend Monseigneur Rutten, Bishop of 
Liege. The venerable, aged prelate received me 
very affably, but he was deeply impressed by the 
terrible fate that had overwhelmed his poor native 
country. He himself had suffered exceedingly bad 
treatment at the hands of the Germans. First he 
and the other hostages were imprisoned in the 
citadel, where he was locked up in a small shanty, 
with a leaking roof, so that the torrential rain entered 
it freely. Wet and cold, the Bishop passed that day 
without being offered any food, and, as stated above, 
was at last allowed to go home. 

He told me a good many other instances of ill- 
treatment, but as I gave him my word of honour 
not to mention them, my mouth is sealed. He him- 
self was visited a few days later by the German 
commanding general, who offered his apologies. 

That same evening many more houses were burned 
down, more particularly in Outre-Meuse, although 
no valid reason was given for that. 

The next day, Sunday, August 16th, I was already 
about at five o'clock in the morning, and soon wit- 
nessed some historical shots. In the park on one 
of the boulevards the Germans had been digging 
for two days, and prepared a firm foundation upon 
which big guns might be mounted. I saw one of 
these guns that morning, and at about half-past five 
three shots were fired from it at short intervals, 
by which Fort Loncin was completely destroyed, as 
was indicated by the terrific explosions which fol- 
lowed the third shot. After these shots I was quite 
benumbed for several minutes; in all the streets 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 63 

of Liege they caused the greatest commotion, which 
became all the greater because large numbers of 
cavalry happened to ride through the town, and all 
the horses started rearing. 

Was the gun I had seen there one of the notorious 
forty-two centimetre monsters? I should not like 
to wager my head in affirming that. It was an in- 
ordinately unwieldy and heavy piece of ordnance, 
but during the first days of the war nothing or very 
little had yet been said or written about these forty- 
two's, and I did not pay sufficient attention to the 
one I saw. Only after the fall of Loncin did 
all those articles about the forty-two's appear 
in the papers, and the Germans certainly asserted 
that they destroyed Loncin by means of such a 
cannon. 

But it is equally certain that at Liege as well as 
at Namur and Antwerp the Austrian thirty-point- 
five mortars were used, siege-guns chiefly, and these 
were taken by the German soldiers for forty-two's. 
These Austrian mortars were equally misnamed in 
German, French, and even Netherland illustrated 
papers. 

However, the effect of these Austrian mortars 
was terrible enough. I could not form a correct 
opinion about them by the sound of the shot; and 
only those who were in the fort that was hit were 
able to realise the terrific results. Hence the 
interest of the report by an officer, who escaped 
after having been made a prisoner at Loncin. He 
told my colleague of De Tijd at Antwerp about it. 
After having related how, during nearly ten days, 
the fort had been defended heroically and reso- 



64 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

lutely, he gave the following description of the final 
struggle : — 

"On August 14th, at about four o'clock in the af- 
ternoon, the expected storm burst; for twenty-five 
hours the invisible siege-guns poured their torrent 
of projectiles on the fort. Flares of fire and dense 
clouds of smoke belched through the crevices. As 
the enemy's batteries could not be located, their fire 
could not be answered. The artillerists of the gar- 
rison were then taken to the spacious chief gallery, 
which offered a safe refuge under its vault, about 
two and a half to three yards thick. Outside the 
sentries were watching. In the parts near the en- 
trance it was unendurable ; the heavy projectiles from 
the guns mounted in the town had nibbled away the 
outer wall, only a yard and a half thick. There 
were as yet no casualties among the garrison; calmly 
they waited for the infernal tempest to subside and 
the enemy to storm the fort, for they had sworn to 
repulse the assault. 

"General Leman, Commander Naessens, and all 
the officers were splendid in their imperturbable cour- 
age. They found the words that went straight to 
the hearts of their men. These fellows looked more 
like bronze statues than human beings. The pro- 
jectiles hammered at the walls and smashed huge 
pieces, penetrating into the parts near the entrance. 
The rest of the fort withstood splendidly the hurri- 
cane of hostile steel and fire. During the night the 
bombardment stopped, and then the commanding 
officer went to inspect the cupolas. 

"The larger ones had suffered little; but the ma- 
jority were jammed by fragments of concrete and 
steel, which struck between the armour and the front- 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 65 

armour. The small quick-fire cupolas had not been 
touched by any projectile. 'It is all right,' he said, 
'we shall be able to repulse the enemy's attack.' 

"At dawn the bombardment started again, but 
only the front was seriously damaged. The garrison 
stood as firm as a rock. Here and there the be- 
ginnings of a fire were soon extinguished. 

"Then a frightful thing happened. The men had 
finished breakfast, some were sleeping quietly in 
spite of the thundering noise. The assault was ex- 
pected to commence during the next night. 

"And then the disaster followed suddenly. At 
about five o'clock a tremendous explosion shook the 
fort to the foundations; the powder-magazine had 
caught fire. It is impossible to describe the appal- 
ling results of that explosion; the entire middle-part 
of the fort collapsed in a stupendous cloud of flames, 
smoke and dust; it was an awful destruction, an im- 
mense avalanche of masses of concrete, fragments 
of armour, which in their fall crushed to death nearly 
the whole of the garrison. From this fantastical, 
confused mass, overwhelming clouds of suffocating 
smoke escaped through some crevices and holes. 

"After this infernal rumble, deadly silence fol- 
lowed, interrupted only by the groans of the 
wounded. The German artillery ceased to fire, and 
from all sides their infantry came rushing on, their 
faces expressing the terror caused by such great 
calamities. They were no longer soldiers longing to 
destroy, but human beings hurrying to go to the 
assistance of other human beings. _ 

"German sappers and other military men cleared 
away the dead and the wounded. They also dis- 
covered General Leman, whose orderlies, who had 
a miraculous escape from death, were already busy 
in rescuing him from underneath the ruins. 



66 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"They were all unrecognisable, their faces were 
black from smoke, their uniforms in rags, their hands 
covered with blood. The general was put on a 
stretcher, and carried outside the fort across the 
heaps of obstacles; there he was attended to by a 
surgeon. He had lost consciousness. As soon as he 
recovered it, he pressed the hands of two Belgian 
officers. 'It is all over; there is nothing left to de- 
fend. But we did our utmost courageously.' 

"A German officer came nearer, and, uncovering 
his head, said in a voice trembling with emotion: 
'General, what you performed is admirable!' Evi- 
dently these words slightly comforted the defender 
of Liege, who before long was removed by motor- 
car to an ambulance in the town." 

Such was the end of Fort Loncin, and by its fall 
the last obstacle was removed by which the undis- 
turbed progress of the German armies might have 
been prevented. The brave defenders of Loncin 
did not surrender, but stood their gound until they 
were buried under the ruins of their own defences. 
According to information from another source, 
Lierce had succumbed the night before. 

Early next morning I walked through the streets 
of Liege, dull and depressed, deploring the fact 
that such clumsy, heavy iron monsters had been 
able to crush this stout defence and such men. As 
I reached the Place du Marche, there arrived three 
hundred disarmed Belgian warriors, escorted by a 
strong German force. They stopped in the square, 
and soon hundreds of the people of Liege crowded 
around them. They were the defenders of Fort 
Pontisse. 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 67 

Men and women tried to break through the Ger- 
man cordon, but were repulsed roughly. So they 
threw fruit, cigars, and cigarettes at them. The 
lads looked gratefully at their compatriots, but for 
the rest stared in front of them in dismal depression. 
Once and again a name was called, as a relative or 
friend was recognised. Some shed tears. 

Whether neutral or foreigner, no one could help 
being deeply moved. Men and women, boys and 
girls, pressed once more through the German fence, 
just to shake hands with someone they had recog- 
nised. No wailing followed, but when hands were 
gripped, with a suppressed sob, they said: 

"Bear up, lad! Keep courage; it will soon be 
different." 

And the answer was: 

"We did our utmost to the last, but it was im- 
possible to go on." 

I could not help myself, but also pressed through 
the Germans, as I wanted to exchange a few words 
with the Belgians. This was possible for a very 
few moments only, in which they told me that they 
had been firing night and day in order to harass the 
Germans who crossed the river, but they had to 
yield at the end, when the Germans put Belgian 
civilians in front of themselves when attacking the 
fort. 

I was roughly pushed back by the German soldiers 
twice over. I broke through only to be repulsed 
again. They got into difficulties with the huge 
crowd, who pushed through on all sides, bought up 
the stock of surrounding shops, and threw choco- 
lates and other sweets, cigars and cigarettes, at their 



68 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

boys. Then a bugle sounded, and the Belgians once 
more were arrayed in files. They calmly lighted 
their cigarettes, and as the order "march" was 
given, they took off their caps, waved them through 
the air, and, turning to the Liege crowd, exclaimed : 
"Vive la Belgique." Then hundreds of caps, hats, 
and arms were waved in response, the air resound- 
ing the cry: "Vive la Belgique. Au revoir! Au 
revoir !" 

As I felt myself one with the population, I un- 
covered my head and enthusiastically joined in the 
cry: "Au revoir! Au revoir!" 

When I was half way between Liege and the 
Netherland frontier, I noticed that the village of 
Vivignes was burning in various places. It is a 
beautiful spot, quite concealed between the green 
trees on the slope of the hills, west of the canal. 
And the finest and largest farms were exactly those 
ablaze. The fire crackled fiercely, roofs came down 
with a crash and a thud. Not a living being could 
be seen. From the windows of the burning houses 
small white flags hung, and they too were one by 
one destroyed by the fire. I counted forty-five 
farms that were burning, destroyed by the raging 
flames. 

In a cafe, lower down, near the canal I saw a 
number of German soldiers, and was successful in 
having a chat with the inn-keeper, at the farthest 
corner of the bar. I asked him, of course, what they 
meant by burning the village, and he told me that 
the Germans had made a number of unsuccessful 
attacks on Fort Pontisse, until at last they reduced 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 69 

it to silence. They were now so near that they 
could open the final assault. They were afraid, 
however, of some ambush, or underground mine, and 
the Friday before they had collected the popula- 
tion, whom they forced to march in front of them. 
When they had got quite near they dared not enter 
it yet, and drove the priest and twelve of the prin- 
cipal villagers before them. That is how Pontisse 
was conquered. 

Later on I heard the same story from several 
other inhabitants. 

The people had been in deadly terror, and women 
and old men, fearing that they would be killed, had 
fallen on their knees beseeching the soldiers to 
spare them. At present many women and old men, 
and even strong men, were laid up with violent 
feverish attacks of nerves. 

Only because these wretched people had not 
promptly obeyed the order of the military to march 
against the fort in front of the soldiers, Vivignes 
had been punished, and that morning over forty of 
the best houses had been set on fire. 

I shuddered at the thought that in these days 
such barbarities were possible. I asked the soldiers 
whether I was allowed to enter the burning vil- 
lage, but the commanding sergeant refused his 
consent. 

I also asked the inn-keeper whether he felt no fear 
in those surroundings. But, shrugging his shoulders, 
he answered: "All we can do is to wait quietly. I 
do all in my power to keep them in a good temper, 
give them beer and cigars, and yesterday killed one 
of my two cows for them. I may have lost every- 



70 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

thing at the end of the war, . . . but even so, let 
it be, if I can only save the life of my family and 
keep a roof over my head. But my anxiety is great 
enough, for, you understand, I have two daughters 
. . . and . . . and . . ." 

We had got near the door of the room that stood 
ajar, and from there came the sound of a couple of 
girls' voices : "Hail, Mary. . . . Hail, Mary. . . ." 

The frightened maidens were saying their 
rosary. 

The news, that all the forts had now been taken 
was quickly communicated to the surrounding mili- 
tary posts, and in consequence the soldiers were 
in a wanton mood. Most of the houses which I 
passed had their doors and windows smashed and 
broken, but the most provoking was that soldiers 
had compelled the people in the cafes along the 
canal to open their pianos and make their musical 
automatons play. To the tunes of these instru- 
ments they danced, yelling and shouting. No 
greater contrast was imaginable than that between 
such scenes and the burning village with the fright- 
ened inhabitants around it. 

Near Haccourt, by the bank of the Meuse, I 
noticed a terrible glare of fire and dense smoke. It 
was an alarming sight, and made me fear the direst 
things. I considered for a moment whether I 
should go there or not, fearing that I had already 
taxed my nerves too much. Yet, I made up my 
mind to go, and by a side-way got to the Meuse, 
near Vise. German engineers were busy here laying 
telephone wires, and an officer stopped me, threaten- 
ing me with his revolver. It was obvious that they 



ROUND ABOUT LIEGE 71 

were no longer accustomed to see civilians on that 
road. After having examined my passport and 
seeing that I was a Netherland journalist, he be- 
came very friendly, and politely urged me not to go 
farther. 

"Why not, sir?" I asked. 

"Well, there is a huge fire yonder; everything is 
burning!" 

"How did that come about?" 

"Well, it seems that the civilians cannot under- 
stand that only soldiers may fight soldiers, and for 
that reason the whole place has been set on lire." 

"Devant-le-Pont?" 

"No, Vise." 

"Vise? Do you mean to say, sir, that the whole 
of Vise has been set on fire?" 

"Certainly!" 

"But . . . but . . .! May I go there?" 

"I must advise you not to, for it is extremely 
dangerous, but if you like . . ." 

"Very well, sir, then I shall go there!" 



CHAPTER IV 

VISE DESTROYED : A PREMEDITATED 
CRIME 



One of the first things I have to deal with is also 
one of the most fearful I ever saw, and I only hope 
that I may never again witness the like of it. 

I have mentioned already the reign of terror with 
which the Germans ruled the wretched townlet ever 
since they entered it. Something fateful might hap- 
pen any moment, and actually occurred during the 
night of August 15th and 16th. 

On that evening the soldiers, rough fellows from 
East Prussia, had been revelling in the cafes, shouting 
filthy ditties in the streets, and most of them in a 
very advanced state of intoxication. At ten o'clock 
suddenly a shot was heard. The fellows took their 
rifles, which they had placed against the walls, or on 
the tables of the cafes, and ran into the street shout- 
ing in a mad rage: "They have been shooting!" 
The most tipsy began to shoot at doors and windows 
simultaneously in various parts of the town, which 
made the people in the houses scream, and this 
excited the mad drunken soldiers all the more. 

72 



VISE DESTROYED 73 

They forced their way into several houses, knocking 
down the frightened inhabitants when these tried 
to stop them. 

It is stated that some of the wretched people were 
even pinioned and beaten. Their assailants then 
stumbled up the stairs and began to shoot wildly 
from the upper stories into the dark streets, where 
their own raving comrades were rushing about like 
madmen. Some civilians who in great fear had 
come to their front door to see what was happening 
were shot down. 

After this game had been going on for some time, 
the order was given: "Everybody must come out- 
side." Doors and windows were forced open and 
broken, and men, women, and children driven out of 
the houses. They were at once ruthlessly separated. 
Men who assisted their aged mothers, or carried 
their little babies, were taken away from their fam- 
ilies, and driven away, leaving their wailing and 
weeping wives and children behind, while the flames 
from burning houses threw a lurid light on the sad 
scenes of that terrible evening. 

The poor wretches, who expected to be killed 
at any moment, were driven into squares or the 
meadows, where they were exposed to the chilly 
night air, so that several babies perished. Only 
the next morning were the women and children al- 
lowed to leave — that is to say, they were told to take 
the shortest way to Maastricht. 

A number of the men were taken to Germany, 
the others were kept as prisoners in the neighbour- 
hood, and by and by had to suffer the shame of being 
compelled to work for the enemy. Amongst them 



74 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

were men who had never done any manual work, 
such as an aged notary public. 

Even a doctor of the Red Cross established at 
St. Hadelin College had been removed in his white 
overall and wearing his Red Cross armlet. This 
was Dr. Labye, who already had rendered signal 
services to the wounded Germans. In consequence 
of his detention twenty of them were left in the 
hospital without medical attendance. . . . 

During the night only a few houses were burnt 
down; the general destruction followed the next 
morning, Sunday, August 16th, and just as I reached 
the little town the flames were raging all over the 
place in a fierce blaze. 

I shall never forget that sight. The Meuse sepa- 
rated me from the raging blaze on the opposite 
bank. The flames roared violently, roofs and rafters 
and walls crashed down, and the wood of living 
trees was burning and screeching loudly. I saw but 
a sea of fire, one glaring glow, and the air was 
scorchingly hot. A light breeze blew through the 
place, and made clouds of smoke to whirl through 
the streets like avalanches of snow. The view down 
the longer streets leading straight from the hill-tops 
to the Meuse was very fantastic. 

The wind seemed to play with the smoke, rolling 
dense volumes down the slopes which dispersed 
only when they reached the bank along the river. 
Whilst the flames soared high up from the roofs, 
the walls of the houses stood still erect, and every- 
where in the windows one saw those miserable 
little white flags, symbols of submission, mute prayers 



VISE DESTROYED 75 

that submission should be rewarded by sparing the 
life and possession of the inhabitants. . . . 

I stood near the spot where the ferry-boat used 
to take people across; but to cross was now out of 
the question, for any one alighting on the opposite 
side would be landed in the scorching glare. There- 
fore, I returned to Lixhe, where I might try to cross 
the river by the pontoon-bridge, and get to Vise 
along the other bank of the Meuse. 

On the way I was stopped by two soldiers, one 
of whom examined my papers, and, finding that I 
was a journalist, revealed himself as a colleague, in 
ordinary times editor of the Kolnische Zeltung. He 
shook both my hands quite excitedly, glad to meet 
a colleague, and, better still, one from the "friendly" 
Netherlands. 

I had to listen to a prolonged hymn of praise of 
the Netherlanders, who were such sensible people, 
and the best friends of the Germans; protestations 
which did not interest me in the least at that mo- 
ment. On the contrary, it struck me as deplorable 
that this man did not say a single word of his own 
accord about the horrible thing happening close by: 
the destruction of an entire community ! He did not 
seem to attach any importance to it. . . . 

As soon as the "friendly" Netherlander thought 
that he had swallowed sufficient praise, I began to 
ask questions about the meaning of that wanton de- 
vastation, and why it was inflicted on the popula- 
tion ! Before answering, he looked round in a casual 
manner, as if thinking: "Oh, it's that bit of fire 
you refer to!" And then exploded in a string of 
imprecations against the population. 



76 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

It is a lamentable sign that this German, probably 
well educated, had not taken the slightest trouble 
to find out the reason for this wholesale wrecking 
of a town, that the whole affair impressed him so 
little. "Somebody" had said that those cursed 
civilians had been shooting, that explained it to his 
satisfaction, and gave him ample cause for coarse 
abuse of the wretched people. 

How many soldiers had fallen in consequence of 
this attack by francs-tireurs he knew not; which 
troops had witnessed the occurrence he could not 
say. All he did know was that these troops had left 
in the morning, leaving a small force behind to im- 
pose the punishment. 

The bridge-command at the pontoon-bridge near 
Lixhe allowed me to cross, after requesting me very 
pressingly to make very clear what swine these Bel- 
gians were, who fired so treacherously at unsus- 
pecting soldiers, put out the eyes of the wounded, 
cut off their hands and genitals. When I asked 
where all these things had happened, the answer was : 
"Everywhere!" Of course, I promised them to do 
everything they wanted. 

Very large divisions marched from Vise to the 
pontoon bridge in the direction of Tongres. After 
the Liege forts had been taken the bridge might be 
passed in perfect safety. All day long troops came 
along that road without interruption. I could quite 
see that the soldiers who were at Vise the' previous 
day, and brought about the conflagration, were gone, 
for they had left their traces behind. All along the 
road lay parts of bicycles, shoes, instruments, toys, 
and so on, everything new and evidently looted from 



VISE DESTROYED 77 

the shops. Very valuable things were among them, 
everything crushed and smashed by the cavalry 
horses, the clumsy munition and forage waggons, or 
the heavy wheels of the guns. 

A little farther on a few houses were left un- 
damaged, because they stood outside the town 
proper. A woman who had remained in her house 
stood outside with cigar-boxes under her arm. She 
offered cigars from an open box to the soldiers of 
the passing divisions. To me she seemed to be out 
of her mind, as she stood there trembling, her face 
distorted from hypernervousness. Her cringing 
kindness was of no avail, for I noticed a couple of 
days afterwards that her house too had been totally 
destroyed. 

On the first houses of the town large bills had 
been stuck, intimating that they were a Netherland- 
er's property, but obviously that had not impressed 
the tipsy soldiers to any extent, for they had been 
wrecked all the same for the greater part. 

The whole town was like a sea of fire. The Ger- 
mans, who are nothing if not thorough, even in the 
matter of arson, had worked out their scheme in 
great detail. In most houses they had poured some 
benzine or paraffin on the floor, put a lighted match 
to it, and thrown a small black disc, the size of a 
farthing, on the burning spot, and then immediately 
the flames flared up with incredible fury. I do not 
know the constituents of this particular product of 
"Kultur." 

Nor did I see any inhabitants in the burning 
town. It was practically impossible to stay in the 
streets; burning walls and roofs and gutters crashed 



78 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

down with a great noise, so that the streets were as 
much on fire as the houses themselves. Only at 
the crossings were any soldiers to be seen, who, in 
various stages of intoxication, constantly aimed at 
the burning houses, and shot everything that tried 
to escape from the burning stables and barns: pigs, 
horses, cows, dogs, and so on. 

Suddenly I saw a boy about twelve years old in 
one of the burning streets. He waved his arms, 
rushed madly to and fro, calling for his father and 
mother, and his little brother and sisters. He was 
in danger of perishing in the fire, or being killed by 
the murderous bullet from a rifle. I ran after him, 
laid hold of him, and in spite of his resistance pulled 
him back. Fortunately I met a couple of kind, sober 
soldiers to whom I told the story, and who promised 
to send the boy away from the burning town. 

Shortly afterwards I met a Netherland Red Cross 
motor-car. The male nurses, who had met me al- 
ready on former occasions during the war, recog- 
nised me, rushed up to me, and forced me to come 
with them to the car. Here they tried to explain 
with a torrential flow of words that I exposed my- 
self to the greatest danger by coming here, as nearly 
all the soldiers were drunk, shot at every civilian, 
and so on. 

They insisted upon my staying near the car, and 
be a little safer under the protection of the Red 
Cross. They told me how they had to drag an old 
woman out of her house, who refused to come with 
them, and in her despair shouted nothing but: "Let 
me die! — let me die!" 

I could not say or do anything, for I felt as if 



VISE DESTROYED 79 

stunned, and let them lead me where they liked; so 
they gave me a glass of claret, and that revived me. 

A few moments after they went away I went also, 
and entered the burning town once more. A Nether- 
land family lived in Villa Rustica, and I had prom- 
ised to make inquiries about them. 

As I stood there looking at the ruins of what was 
once so fine a house, a small group of refugees ap- 
proached, carrying as usual their miserable parcels 
in which they had hurriedly collected the things that 
had the least value. As they saw me they shuddered 
and shivered and crept closer together. Most of 
them wept and sobbed, and their faces were twisting 
nervously. 

I went up to them and explained that there was 
no need at all to be afraid of me. They were able to 
give me news of the inhabitants of Villa Rustica. 
The owner had died a few days since, from a para- 
lytic stroke, brought on by the emotions caused by 
the German horrors, whereas madame, who had 
heroically intervened on behalf of some victims, was 
probably at St. Hadelin College. 

My poor informants had not yet made up their 
mind where to go, fearing that they might not be 
permitted to enter The Netherlands as they were 
without means of subsistence. I assured them, how- 
ever, that our conception of neighbourly love and 
charity was different, and that they would be hos- 
pitably received. 

I showed them the way to Eysden, and they had 
scarcely started when a cavalry patrol came racing 
on, the men tipsy and their seat rather unstable. 
Seeing the refugees, they aimed their rifles at them 



80 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and roared "Hands up !" The poor creatures not 
only put up their hands, but fell on their knees, 
and muttered incoherent words. The women folded 
their hands, and stretched them out to the cavalry, 
as if praying for mercy. The soldiers looked at 
the scene for a moment, burst out in a harsh laughter, 
spurred on their horses, and raced on without a 
word. Two of them stopped near me. I gave them, 
however, no time for threats, but quickly showed 
them the old pass to Vise. As soon as they saw the 
German writing they said: "All right!" and went 
off. 

I came now to the eastern boundary of the town, 
whence the streets slope gently towards the bank of 
the Meuse. Here I had an atrociously fantastic view 
of the burning mass of houses. I fell in with a crowd 
of dead-drunk soldiers, who first handed my papers 
on from the one to the other, but as soon as they 
understood that I was a Netherlander they showed 
no hostility. 

They sang and shouted and waved their arms. 
Most of them carried bottles full of liquor, which 
they put to their mouths frequently, smashed them 
on the ground, or handed them to their comrades, 
when unable to drink any more themselves. Each 
of a troop of cavalry had a bottle of pickles, and 
enjoyed them immensely. 

Other soldiers kept on running into the burning 
houses, carrying out vases, pictures, plate, or small 
pieces of furniture. They smashed everything on 
the cobbles and then returned to wreck more things 
that would have been destroyed by the fire all the 
same. It was a revelry of drunken vandalism. They 



VISE DESTROYED 81 

seemed mad, and even risked being burned alive at 
this work of destruction. Most of the officers were 
also tipsy; not one of them was saluted by the 
soldiers. 

The beastly scenes which I witnessed in the glar- 
ing, scorching heat benumbed me, and I looked on 
vacantly for a long time. At last I went back and 
called at St. Hadelin College, the Head of which I 
had visited already once or twice. The building 
was still undamaged. 

As soon as the Reverend Head, Dr. Frits Goffin, 
saw me he burst out sobbing, and, taking me by the 
hand, speechless, he pressed it a long time. I myself 
also was quite dumb. At length he muttered: 

"Could you ever have thought . . . that . . . 
that . . . such ... a cruel . . . fate would over- 
whelm us? What crime did these poor people com- 
mit? Have we not given all we had? Have we not 
strictly obeyed their commands ? Have we not done 
more than they asked for? Have we not charitably 
nursed their wounded in this House? Oh! they 
profess deep gratitude to me. But . . . why then? 
There is nothing left in the House for the aged 
refugees whom we admitted, for the soldiers we 
nurse; our doctor has been made a prisoner and 
taken away, and we are without medical help. This 
is nothing for the Sisters and myself, but all 
these unfortunate creatures . . . they must have 
food. . . ." 

The excellent man went on weeping, and I was 
not able to console him and did not know what to 
say. He took my arm, and led me to the large 
common hall, where twenty wounded Germans lay, 



82 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

who had been hit in the fight for the forts. He 
went to one bed after the other, and, with tears 
in his eyes, asked each man how he felt, and inquired, 
"are you . . . properly . . . cared for . . . here? 
Are you?" The sick men turned round, their eyes 
beamed, and they stammered words full of grati- 
tude. Others said nothing, but took the Head's hand 
and pressed it long and warmly. 

The wounded civilians had been put up in the 
small schoolrooms. Some of them must soon die. 
Some had burns, but most of them were hit the 
previous night during the mad outbreak, the mad 
shooting of the drunken and riotous Germans. In 
another room a number of old women were crowded 
together, who had to fly but could not walk all the 
way to the Netherland frontier. 

Near each staircase stood a blackboard on which 
the Germans had written that to go upstairs was 
prohibited under penalty of death. The Head ex- 
plained that the Germans alleged that light signals 
had been given from the top storey. 

Two South-American boys, about twelve years 
old, had stayed on and heroically assisted the Head 
at his charitable work. Dr. Goffin was not allowed 
to take anybody with him except these two children 
in his search for the wounded, and to bury the dead. 
It is scarcely credible how courageously these boys 
of such tender age behaved. Later the Chilean am- 
bassador made inquiries about them and asked for 
their portraits. 

I also met there a compatriot, who had got per- 
mission to go to The Netherlands, but declined to 



VISE DESTROYED 83 

leave. She was Mrs. de Villers, nee Borret. On 
August 27th I wrote about her to De Tijd: — 

"Four days ago her husband was buried. As he 
was addressing the League of Old-Retraitants at 
Cherath he was seized by a paralytic stroke, which 
proved fatal. She has no longer a home, beautiful 
Villa Rustica being completely burnt out, and now in 
ruins. But she refuses to return to The Nether- 
lands, as she is still able to be of service to the peo- 
ple here. 

"In Cherath she saved the life of a good many. 
As it was alleged that there had been shooting, the 
priest, the chaplain, a retired priest, eighty years old, 
the mayor, and several leading citizens were con- 
demned to be shot. None, not even the priest, was 
able to defend himself, as they knew not a word of 
German, and could not make themselves understood. 
Mrs. de Villers, who speaks German fluently, ex- 
plained that the spot where the shooting was alleged 
to have taken place was not part of Cherath at all. 

"So this brave lady succeeded in getting the sen- 
tence of death withdrawn. But the Germans wanted 
to torture their wretched prisoners on any or no 
plea. They were placed near the church wall, kept 
standing there all night, were told that they would 
be shot by and by, and threatened by the soldiers with 
their bayonets. 

"In the morning sixty soldiers escorted them out 
of the village to the hamlet Wandre, where the 
populace was told they would be shot. Should one 
shot be fired by one of the inhabitants — thus Mrs. 
de Villers was told — the prisoners would be shot out 
of hand; if not, they would be released at Wandre. 
Mrs. de Villers had, of course, secretly warned the 
inhabitants in time. 



84 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

u She hopes to be able to render further services 
to the populace, thanks to her knowledge of Ger- 
man, and stays on, occupying her time with chari- 
table work. A respectful salute is due to this cour- 
ageous compatriot." 

On the same day I wrote as follows about Dr. 
Goffin : — 



"His face, unshaven since ever so long, is quite 
emaciated, and presents all the symptoms of ner- 
vous exhaustion. Once more twenty German soldiers 
are being nursed in his college, where only once a 
German doctor came to see them. He (Dr. Goffin) 
and a couple of Sisters have to manage everything 
by themselves, and the Germans do not even dream 
of providing food for their own wounded, although 
the college is so inadequately provisioned that the 
Head and the Sisters have to deny themselves the 
necessary nourishment that they may feed the 
wounded. 

"And how are they thanked for it? 

"The Reverend Head has been notified already 
ten times that he would be shot, and he is frequently 
being arrested for alleged shooting from the build- 
ing. This shooting is actually done by German sol- 
diers alone, who are loafing and looting, as I myself 
noticed a short time ago. The Head took me to a 
room where an old man of ninety, who had just re- 
received the extreme unction, lay dying. By his side 
sat a broken-hearted little old woman, his wife. This 
old man had been taken prisoner with other men of 
Vise, and forced to work at a new bridge. The poor 
fellow broke down under the strain; it cost him his 
life." 



VISE DESTROYED 85 

I left burning Vise deeply impressed by the savage 
scenes I had witnessed: men turned into beasts by 
drink, passion, and anger, doing all manner of wrong 
to the wretched inhabitants; but the impression be- 
came deeper by the great contrast : the perfect, chari- 
table devotion of a virtuous priest, a courageous lady, 
and ever kind and commiserate Sisters. Never have 
I experienced so many emotions in one day as at 
Vise. 

After taking warm leave of the Head of St. 
Hadelin College, I continued my walk to the Nether- 
land frontier. 

I was scarcely outside the townlet when I met 
another little group of refugees, probably all mem- 
bers of one family. The mother was being sup- 
ported by her daughters, all wept, and nervous ex- 
haustion made them totter as they walked. Every 
moment the mother looked back pitifully at the 
conflagration which devoured all around, including 
her slender property, for which she had worked so 
many years. 

From the other side came two soldiers, one of 
whom she recognised, as he had been billeted on 
her. Constantly weeping, her face distorted, she 
sent another glance towards that fiery blaze, looked 
at the soldier as if reprovingly, hesitated a moment, 
but then pressed the enemy's hand, sobbing: "Adieu! 
—adieu!" 

Sometimes I felt as if I were dreaming and wanted 
to call myself back from this nightmare to another, 
better, and real world. And I thought constantly 
of the man who, by one word, had given the order 
for these murders, this arson; the man who severed 



86 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, and chil- 
dren, who caused so many innocent people to be 
shot, who destroyed the results of many, many years 
of strict economy and strenuous industry. 

The first acquaintance whom I met on Nether- 
land territory was a Netherland lady married to a 
Walloon, who kept a large cafe at Vise. Before 
the destruction she had asked me, full of anxiety, 
whether the Germans would indeed carry out their 
threat and wreck everything. I had comforted her, 
and answered that I did not think them capable 
of doing such a thing. Weeping, she came to me, 
and reminded me of my words. The whole business, 
in which these young people had invested their slen- 
der capital, had been wrecked. 



CHAPTER V 

FRANCS-TIREURS? 

I think that there is no better occasion to deal with 
the question whether there was a franc-tireur- 
guerilla in Belgium than after the chapter on the 
destruction of Vise. 

My opinion on the matter is still the same as 
when I first wrote about it to De Tijd, and in Vrij 
Belgie; and from my own personal knowledge and 
after mixing with the people I consider the allega- 
tion that the Belgians acted as francs-tireurs an abso- 
lute lie. 

Some uphold the accusation on the ground of 
expressions in Belgian newspapers, collected in a 
German pamphlet. In my opinion these quotations 
have not the slightest value. Everyone will under- 
stand this who thinks of the excitement of journalists, 
whose country was suddenly and quite unexpectedly 
involved in a terrible war, and who felt now that 
as journalists they had to perform a great, patriotic 
duty. In their nervous, over-excited condition they 
sat at their desk and listened to the gossip of refu- 
gees about civilians taking part in the struggle. In 
their imagination they saw hordes of barbarians 
overrun their native soil, saw man and man, woman 

87 



88 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and woman, shoulder to shoulder, resisting the 
invader without regard for their own life. The 
thoughts of such journalists, whose very own country 
had been at war now for a few days, were not on 
severe logical lines; they found a certain beauty 
in that picture, and I can quite understand how 
some came to believe in it as a reality, and gloried 
in it. 

That is not evidence however, for how did they 
get the information? From my own experience 
I make bold to say with the greatest confidence 
that these reports came from German sources only, 
whereas there was not any ground for them. 

I have witnessed all the people during the very 
earliest days of the war. I came to Liege, passing 
between the forts, as described already. I was in 
Lixhe when the pontoon bridge was wrecked repeat- 
edly by Fort Pontisse; I stayed at Vise three times 
before the destruction began, and I was there when 
the charming townlet was wrecked by fire; and in 
Louvain I have been dragged from my bed by 
six soldiers and arrested, when the whole town was 
still ablaze. 

Very well, I have : 

i. Never seen anything of a franc-tireur-guerilla. 

2. Never seen anyone who was arrested as a 
franc-tireur. 

3. Never heard any German soldier, of whatever 
rank, assert that he himself had witnessed any ac- 
tion by a franc-tireur, although I questioned such 
soldiers times without number. They always men- 
tioned others, who had left days ago, and were said 
to have gone through the miserable experience ! 



FRANCS-TIREURS ? 89 

4. Never heard the name of any franc-tireur in 
answer to my questions. 

But they were always German officers and no 
others who talked about francs-tireurs, and at Vise, 
Liege, Dinant, Bilsen, and particularly at Louvain, 
they constantly pressed me and tried to make me 
promise that I should write to De Tijd about francs- 
tireurs and justify the devastations. These stories 
emanated from the officers and permeated the rank 
and file ; and the men grew fearfully angry with the 
Belgians, whom they cursed and abused. It also 
made the soldiers terribly afraid of francs-tireurs, 
and I noticed many a time that some loud sound 
from a falling wall, for example, made a whole 
troop of soldiers jump up, lay hold of their rifles, 
and hide themselves in an absolute "blue funk." 
The mere noise made them curse and rage and talk 
of nothing but burning houses. 

In the end these stories of the soldiers convinced 
even the inhabitants that there had been francs- 
tireurs, but never in the place where they lived, 
always somewhere else. They could not believe 
that the Germans could be so cruel and wreck so 
much property if nothing at all had happened; 
and when at length the time came that they them- 
selves were obliged to fly, many of them believed 
that their compatriots who elsewhere acted as francs- 
tireurs were to blame for all the dire calamities. 
But if they had had my opportunity to go "else- 
where" and gather information there, they would 
have been convinced of the untruth, and probably 
would have heard the name of their own village as 



90 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the scene of the occurrence. That was how rumours 
and reports got about. 

Many soldiers, probably most of them, were un- 
doubtedly of good faith, and believed what they 
related; but the damnable notion had been put into 
their heads by their superiors. That is why I do 
not consider it impossible that some places were 
wrecked on account of alleged acts by f rancs-tireurs. 

I have explained already in the chapter "Round 
about Liege" that I myself was duped occasionally, 
for example, by the story of the three hundred 
civilians who had been shot. To my mind these 
violent acts at the beginning of the war were part 
and parcel of the system of frightfulness, by which 
the Germans tried to scare the population and 
indirectly the hostile armies, at the same time rous- 
ing their own soldiers to anger and fury. 

That mad fury was also intensified considerably 
by the accusations about gruesome mutilations com- 
mitted on German soldiers by Belgians, who were 
said to have cut off the noses, ears, genitals, and 
so on of their enemies. These rumours were so 
persistent that in the end it was generally believed 
in neutral countries that these things had happened 
frequently. 

No little astonishment was therefore created by 
an interview which I published with Dr. van der 
Goot of The Hague, who did so much excellent 
work in the Red Cross Hospital at Maastricht. He 
also had come to believe all these stories, and as 
everybody always mentioned a large hospital in 
Aix-la-Chapelle, which was said to be full of simi- 
larly mutilated soldiers, Dr. van der Goot went to 



FRANCS-TIREURS ? 91 

that town to see for himself. The chief medical 
officer of that hospital in a conversation stated that 
not one single case of that sort had been treated in 
his institution nor in any of the other local hospitals 
where he was a visiting physician. At a meeting 
of the medical circle just lately held he had not 
heard one word, nor had any one colleague, about 
the treatment of similar cases. 

In Louvain I was myself arrested, because a more 
than half-drunk soldier had accused me of spying 
and arson! There too I had to listen to all sorts 
of abuse because I was a franc-tireur. And in spite 
of all this they tried to extract a promise from me 
to write against the f rancs-tireurs ! 

The history of the destruction of Vise affords 
also interesting support to my opinion, as previously 
expressed, that the violent actions of the Germans 
took place according to a fully thought-out design. 

During the early days of the war the papers 
published a report, of German origin, that Vise had 
been destroyed because francs-tireurs had appeared. 
I was therefore not a little amazed when, arriving 
there on August 8th, I found the townlet entirely 
undamaged, and even the German military admitted 
that they had not heard a word about francs-tireurs. 

But the inhabitants were treated even then in 
a most vexatious manner, and on August 14th (the 
destruction came about on the 16th) I wrote to De 
Tijd (No. 20457) : — 

"Vise is under a real reign of terror. The day be- 
fore yesterday the town-crier walked the streets with 
his bell, and announced that within twenty-four hours 



92 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

everyone had to deliver his bicycle at the bridge. 
Anyone in whose house a bicycle should be found 
would be shot and his house set on fire. Yesterday 
morning the Germans announced once more that all 
arms, including those that were old or damaged or 
taken to pieces, should be handed in at the town-hall 
within an hour. If any arms should be found any- 
where after that, they would shoot the inhabitants 
and burn down the town. Eatables and drinkables 
were requisitioned continuously under threats of fir- 
ing the town, and the inhabitants are afraid of noth- 
ing so much as of the possibility that something may 
be required some day or other that cannot be pro- 
duced." 

Even before that, on August nth I sent a com- 
munication, by post or cable (De Tijd, No. 20353), 
in which the following is found: — 

"In and round about Vise people sleep in their 
cellars, as they are threatened frequently that the 
town will be set on fire." 

Anyone who, like myself, has been able to see 
in what frame of mind the people were during the 
first days of the German occupation, cannot believe 
it possible that they would even think of taking up 
arms. They lived in an unending terror, tried to 
forestall the invader's demands, and, if anything was 
requisitioned, they searched each other's houses 
to see whether anything was kept back and all the 
demanded bottles of gin or claret were forthcoming. 
There was not one who did not keep his door open 
as widely as possible to prove his complete sub- 



FRANCS-TIREURS ? 93 

missiveness, and to let the Germans enter his house 
at any time to check what was to be found there. 
Every moment I saw men or women run into the 
street offering cigars to the soldiers from open boxes, 
smiling nervously and desperately, trying to behave 
as unconcernedly as possible. During those early 
days payment for refreshments was accepted hardly 
anywhere, and people often refused to accept money 
from me, because they mistook me for a German. 

Men and young women in the prime of life sat 
whole days in a chair, or lay abed, because in the 
most literal sense of the word they were unable to 
stand on their feet for fear and terror, caused by 
the incessant menaces. 

And during these first days of the war I had not 
met a single person who was able to settle down 
quietly in the existing circumstances, not a single 
person in whom anger and fury subdued fear and 
terror. 

Is it thinkable that persons in that frame of mind 
would take up arms and invite the enemy's revenge 
upon themselves and those near and dear to them, 
a revenge of which they were so mortally afraid? 

And supposing for a moment that the allegations 
made by the Germans were true, that there had 
been shooting at Vise for example, then one might 
perhaps consider the revenge justifiable, but should 
also expect that they would punish with a heavy 
heart, conscious that they were inflicting a necessary 
evil. 

Of a heavy heart, however, there was not a trace. 
In the previous chapter I described how beastly 
they behaved during the destruction of Vise; how 



94 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the soldiers drank immoderate quantities of alcohol, 
and then jeered at the wretched refugees; how they 
indulged in unmitigated vandalism, and wrecked by 
hand things of which they knew that by and by would 
be destroyed by fire. 

Children and old people perished in consequence 
of the cruel heartlessness of the Germans, and in 
St. Hadelin College they robbed their own wounded 
of medical help and surgical appliances. 

This happened not only at Vise, but also at other 
places which I visited, more especially at Louvain. 
And those who read the following chapters carefully 
will find sufficient support for my opinion, that 
Belgium is innocent of the base charges and allega- 
tions uttered by Germany, which country soiled its 
conscience still worse, first by plunging the little king- 
dom into the direst misery, and then by accusing it 
falsely of crimes which it never committed. 



CHAPTER VI 

WITH THE FLEMINGS 

Between my tours through the Liege district I 
made a trip in the direction of Tongres, because I 
wanted to know what had become of all those Ger- 
mans who had crossed the Meuse near Lixhe. It 
was remarkable to notice how friendly the Flem- 
ings of that district behaved with regard to the 
Germans. Although they criticised the violation 
of the country's neutrality sharply, and every family 
was proud of the sons who had taken up arms in 
defence of their Fatherland, yet they judged quite 
kindly the German soldiers who passed through their 
district. I often heard expressions full of pity to- 
ward those men, who could not help themselves, 
but were compelled to do whatever their superiors 
commanded them. 

The Germans did themselves great injury un- 
doubtedly by their vulgar and barbarous demeanour, 
for that lost them every claim on the sympathy of 
the people. 

They behaved tolerably well during the first few 
days after the occupation of Tongres; but that did 
not last long, and soon they began here also to 
commit atrocious acts of terrorism. One evening 

95 



96 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

at about the middle of August several civilians were 
killed, a dozen houses along the road to Maastricht 
were fired, and in the town the windows of several 
shops smashed, which was followed by general loot- 
ing. That lost them whatever sympathy they might 
have met with in the district. 

On August 1 2th I came for the first time to 
Tongres. They had been there only a few days, 
and only near the town-hall did I see a goodly num- 
ber of the garrison. Many wounded were brought 
there, and carried in through the door under the 
outside stairway. They came from Haelen, where 
a battle was being fought that afternoon and for 
which they had left in the morning. For the at- 
tack on the entrenched Belgians they had used 
cavalry exclusively, who were simply mowed down 
by the murderous fire from the hidden mitrailleuses 
and the infantry fire from the trenches. The Ger- 
mans suffered a great reverse, and were deeply em- 
bittered. 

Just outside Tongres I met a fleet of Red Cross 
cars loaded with wounded. Cavalry escorted them. 
I was stopped and ordered to go back, as they ex- 
pected the Belgians to attack Tongres. 

I thought the result of the battle of Haelen rather 
important, and should have liked to have wired it 
immediately to my paper. Until how I had al- 
ways gone on foot, that being the only conveyance 
which the Germans could not seize. But this time 
I preferred a bicycle, as the only way to get to The 
Netherlands on that same day. So I tried at a 
couple of bicycle-shops to get a second-hand one 
for love and money. At the first shop I asked: — 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 97 

"I suppose, madame, that you have an old 'bike' 
to sell?" 

She looked me up and down suspiciously, and then 
said: 

"No, I've none to sell." 

I did not fare better at the next. There the 
answer was: 

"I refuse to sell 'bikes' to Germans." 

"But, madame, I am not German; I am a Nether- 
lander. I should . . ." 

"I can hear quite well that you are German, and 
if you were a Netherlander you would not venture 
on a bike at this moment. If you come here to 
seize my bikes, I'll deliver them, for I cannot do 
anything against that, but I refuse to sell them of 
my own free-will." 

The dear lady rapped it out in such a decided tone 
of voice that I desisted. I told my trouble to the 
proprietor of a cafe where I took a glass of beer; he, 
examining my papers, placed confidence in me, and 
got me a rickety thing, for which I paid twenty- 
two francs. 

After all, this was better than walking, so I de- 
cided to make a small detour, go once more to Liege, 
and see how the forts were. I lost my way in a maze 
of by-roads, and got at last back to the main road 
near Jupille, where I met a patrol of Uhlans, who 
came in my direction at a trot. 

Already from a distance with much fuss they 
signalled to me to stop, and of course I obeyed at 
once. Two men dismounted, came to me in a 
perfect rage, and, without asking who I was or 
what I was doing, cut my tyres to pieces in several 



98 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

places; they abused me with wild gesticulations and 
threats, jumped on their horses, and rode off. I 
dragged my wretched vehicle with its stabbed tyres 
a little distance, but then met a second patrol, who 
showed still greater indignation, and destroyed it 
altogether. 

For the rest of the journey I used my only re- 
maining means of transport, my legs, and after a 
walk of some hours got to the frontier of The Neth- 
erlands near Oud-Vroenhoven. A Netherland cus- 
tom-house officer asked for my papers, and I showed 
him my huge passport. The man looked at the 
sheet critically, and made out that I could not pos- 
sibly be a Netherlander, as I was the holder of a 
"foreign" passport. 

My "foreign" passport was, of course, in French, 
of which language the man evidently knew not a 
word. Although I explained that this passport was 
the best one could get in The Netherlands, that I 
had paid six guilders and seventy-five cents for it, 
that I was a war-correspondent of De Tijd, it was 
all useless. I had to go with him to the guard- 
house, and the man kept the queer passport — the 
damning piece of evidence — firmly in his hand. All 
the inquisitive loafers, of which the frontier was 
full during those days, followed me, and so we went 
in procession to the guard-house, at some distance 
from the frontier. I heard all sorts of discussions 
behind me, and constantly caught words like: Ger- 
man, boche, deserter, franc-tireur, spy, and other 
complimentary niceties. 

As soon as I had entered the guard-house a 
soldier, rifle in hand, mounted guard. The cus- 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 99 

tom-house officer handed my French passport to 
a lieutenant, who scrutinised it closely. Then fol- 
lowed the examination : 

"You are a journalist?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"On which paper?" 

"De Tijd, sir; here is my press-card." 

"Where is De Tijd printed?" 

"In Amsterdam. . . ." 

"In which street?" 

"Well . . . ! The Nieuwe Zijds Voorburgwal." 

"All right; you may go!" 

Having pushed my way through the loafers, who 
stood waiting before the house, I was able to con- 
tinue my journey to Maastricht. 

A few days later I had to go to Canne, a Belgian 
hamlet near the frontier, south of Maastricht. In 
the evening of August 18th an atrociously bar- 
barous crime had been committed there, a cool- 
blooded murder. At Canne live some good, kind 
Flemings, who would not hurt a fly. The kind- 
hearted burgomaster had, moreover, tried for days 
to comfort his fellow-citizens, and was for ever 
saying: 

"Leave everything to me; I'll invite them to have 
a glass of wine with me, and you will see then that 
they are kind people." 

This he had done. Already for many days he had 
treated several officers to his best claret. 

Tuesday night, August 18th, at about n o'clock, 
a train of luggage carts passed through Canne, and 
in the village the Browning of one of the soldiers 
in the last van went off suddenly. This was the 



100 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

signal for all Germans to start shooting indiscrim- 
inately, anywhere, at anything, happily without hit- 
ting anybody. A few tipsy soldiers went to the 
burgomaster's house, and no sooner had his wife 
opened the door for the barbarians, when a shot was 
fired, the bullet passing through the unfortunate 
lady's head into the wall opposite the door. 
I was there early the next morning and saw the hole. 
It is evident that the soldiers ill-treated the dead 
lady with their rifles in a horrible manner, for a large 
part of the wall was spattered over with blood. 

After having murdered the burgomaster's wife, 
the villains attacked a guest, Mr. Derricks, a law- 
yer, and member of the Provincial States, whom 
they killed with a bayonet. His wife broke a leg 
when she tried to fly to the cellar. 

Mr. Derricks lived at Roelanche, but with his 
wife and seven children had fled for security to 
Canne, where he was hospitably received in Mr. 
Poswick's, the burgomaster's, house. 

When I got to the house everything was in a 
frightful state. A pair of curtains showed traces 
of fire; cupboards had been emptied, and nearly all 
the china and glass broken; statuary lay broken on 
the floor; windows were smashed; bits of bricks 
and plaster from the ceilings, through which many 
shots had been fired, completed the scene of des- 
truction. On the doorstep I picked up a cartridge- 
case, which I have always kept, because it is highly 
probable that it had contained the bullet which 
killed Mrs. Poswick. 

This terrible tragedy took place at scarcely six 
yards from the Netherland frontier, for the burgo- 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 101 

master's house stands by a road half Belgian and half 
Netherland. The Netherland soldiers who were 
doing frontier-duty on the latter part had to fly 
from the mad shooting of the Germans. They hid 
behind a wall that was quickly full of bullet-holes. 
The German soldiers spent a considerable time guz- 
zling the burgomaster's wine, which they looted, and 
afterwards went off in the direction of Tongres. 

It was stated later on that the German authori- 
ties punished the culprits and had them executed 
at Aix-la-Chapelle ; De Tijd of August 31st, 19 14, 
also reported it. But the action of these soldiers was 
not worse than that of generals who had entire cities 
destroyed and civilians killed by the hundred, but 
were always screened by the German Government. 

On Thursday, August 20th, I decided to go once 
more in the direction of Tongres. As the Germans 
had picketed the main road along the Netherland 
frontier, made a detour and dragged my bicycle 
across the mountain near Petit Laney, a very trying 
job in the stifling heat. From the mountain top 
I had a beautiful vista, which enabled me to see that 
near Riemst a large German force was encamped 
at which I desired to have a look. So I walked 
down the hill to Canne, where some crofters were 
trying to get their cattle into The Netherlands. 
These poor creatures, who usually own two or three 
head of cattle, had been compelled already to give 
up half of their stock. From Canne I cut through 
corn and beetroot fields to the road to Riemst. 
The first German sentinels were tolerably friendly. 

"Ah, so you are a Netherlander, aren't you? 



102 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

Then we are friends. The Netherlands remains 
neutral, does she not? What news have you from 
there; are you already at war with Britain?" 

These and similar questions were asked after a 
superficial examination of my papers, and, having 
answered them, I was allowed to go on. But at a 
certain moment an officer appeared, who summoned 
me to dismount, and asked for my papers. After 
a short examination he ordered a soldier to take 
me to the commanding officer at Riemst. 

The attitude of all the soldiers changed immedi- 
ately; they looked at me with angry eyes, and from 
time to time I heard hostile remarks. Whenever I 
did not walk quickly enough or turned a little to the 
right or the left, my escort pulled me roughly by the 
arm. All the same I took the case as coolly as 
possible, fully convinced that the commanding 
officer would release me after a superficial examina- 
tion. 

At Riemst, the soldier took, or rather pummelled 
me into a large farm-house, and soon I faced the big- 
wigs, who had made themselves as comfortable as 
possible in a large room. Several pictures and en- 
gravings lay on the ground in pieces, whilst numerous 
full and empty wine-bottles indicated that they had 
abundantly worshipped at the shrine of Bacchus, 
and intended to go on with the cult. The higher 
officers and the subalterns seemed to be frantically 
busy; at least they had violent discussions with many 
gesticulations over a map. The soldier reported 
that he had brought me here by order of Lieutenant 
Such — I did not catch the name — and then it began : 

"Who are you?" 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 10S 

"I am . . ." 

"What do you want here — what are you here 

for?" 

"I am a Netherland jour . . ." 

"What! A Netherlander? I suppose you come 
to see how many troops are here, don't you? And 
then . . ." 

"Please be good enough to have a look at my 
papers, and then . . . 

"Papers? Papers? Yes, of course you all have 
papers; all those villains who shot at our men at 
Vise come back from The Netherlands with papers, 
in order to start afresh. Later on I'll have a look 
at that stuff. Here, lock him up for the present." 

He pointed to a couple of soldiers, and they laid 
hold of me. They took me to a small room, where 
I was astonished to find two soldiers with revolvers 
guarding a priest and a peasant. As soon as the 
door was closed behind me I wished to chat with 
my fellow-prisoners, for even in prison I was not 
oblivious of my journalistic duties. But they 
seemed not at all anxious to have anything to do 
with me, and I soon understood the reason why. 
At each question they threw timid glances at the 
two watch-dogs, and I saw that fear of these made 
them withhold all information. However, after a 
good deal of trouble I got to know that the priest 
was the parish priest, and his companion in misery 
the burgomaster. They had been taken as hostages, 
and would suffer punishment for acts the villagers 
might eventually commit against the German 
usurpers. I contented myself with this, as I felt 



104 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

that in the circumstances further questions might 
make things awkward for these two men. 

What might happen next? Sitting on a chair 
in a corner of the room I began to consider my 
position. For the moment it was not agreeable, 
but by and by those officers might find time to look 
at my papers. The only thing I bothered about 
was a map marked with the places where, according 
to the latest news, the German and French armies 
were. I kept it in an inside coat-pocket, and it 
might be found if they should search me. 

I spent three hours in the small room with my 
silent companions. At last I was called, and ap- 
peared once more before the casual court-martial. 

"Very well, now give me those papers." 

Having got them, several officers examined my 
credentials, and their faces showed that the horizon 
was a little clearer for me. 

"Oh, you are a journalist? And what came you 
here for?" 

"Well, sir, I wanted to follow, as far as the Ger- 
man Authorities desire to allow it, the movements 
of the German armies, in order to give reliable 
information to the Netherland public, who take a 
great interest in your progress." 

"Indeed! And did you take notes already? Just 
let me have a look." 

The turn things took now was not quite to my 
liking, and I did not feel very safe when I handed 
him my scribbling-pad. 

"I cannot read a word of it! Can you read it at 
all yourself? Yes? Oh, but I cannot understand 
it. Translate some of it." 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 105 

That was a relief ! I began to translate, taking 
the liberties to which every translator is entitled. 
And I succeeded in making a favourable impression 
by censoring my own manuscript. 

"Well, that is right enough. But, mind, don't 
say in your paper that you found troops here, and 
especially avoid telling which troops." 

"Very well, sir." 

"Nor must you tell them that we detained you 
here. That was really not our intention at all, but 
just now we had no time to examine your papers." 

"All right, sir." 

"And what is the news in The Netherlands about 
the war?" 

"Well, sir, not much beyond what you are sure 
to know already: that Japan declared war against 
Germany; that the Russians invaded Germany; that 
the French gained some important victories 
in Alsace; that the German fleet lost some 
ships . . ." 

"Oh, bosh! Stop it! These are, of course, all 
lies from Reuter; they did not come from Wolff. 
Japan is not going to declare war against us ; much 
rather against Russia!" 

"Oh, but, sir, Wolff confirmed these reports." 

"Oh no ! That is impossible, and, after all, we 
are not afraid of Japan either. You had better 
write in your paper that we are not afraid of any- 
thing excepting Montenegro. And you may also 
inform your readers that it is better for Nether- 
landers not to cross the frontier, as we are going 
to apply much stricter measures. For we have evi- 
dence that those people from Vise and other villages 



106 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

who fled to The Netherlands are returning with 
forged papers, in order to shoot at us. And now 
you may go, but back to Maastricht at once." 

"But will you then please give me a pass, other- 
wise I may be detained again on my way back." 

"Oh yes! You may have that!" 

And the commanding officer gave me a pass, on 
which this very same colonel who had prohibited 
me to write in my paper what troops were at Riemst, 
put a stamp on that pass, which contained the 
German eagle, and besfdes this the words: "Royal 
Prussian 8, Reserve Infantry Regiment, II Bat- 
talion." This confirmed what the rumours said, that 
the troops who had passed through Vise and other 
places during the last days and committed those 
atrocities there, were the reserves which had been 
called up, among whom discipline is less strict than 
among the younger men, who arrived in these dis- 
tricts during the earlier days. 

Although I had been commanded to return "at 
once" to Maastricht, I succeeded in having a chat 
here and there with the inhabitants of Riemst. I 
had visited the village about eight days ago, but 
what a change ! Then the people assured me that 
"die Duutschen" * were not so bad after all, that 
they were compelled to do their duty, and were 
kind to the inhabitants if these were kind to them. 

And at present? Every word expressed hate, pro- 
found hate, hardly controlled. They trembled all 
over when they spoke in deep, inspiring voices about 
"die Duutschen." 1 

Everything of value had been stolen from them: 

1 See note on page i. 



WITH THE FLEMINGS 107 

horses, cows, sheep, carts, bicycles, everything, 
everything! — only in some cases payment was made 
with tickets, which might be cashed after the war. 
During the night the German soldiers slept in the 
rooms, but the inhabitants — men, women, children, 
babies and sick persons — they locked in barns and 
cellars, which they boarded up. 

I was not allowed to return by bicycle, and left 
it at a cafe at the crossing of the roads to Tongres 
and Riemst. A couple of days later the Germans 
had already abstracted the tyres. 

The road to The Netherlands was strewn over 
with empty wine-bottles. 



CHAPTER VII 

LIEGE AFTER THE OCCUPATION 

Next day I was already back in Liege, where much 
was changed after my last visit. The Germans went 
on terrorising the inhabitants, and these, being ex- 
tremely frightened, looked with suspicion at every 
stranger. In the streets was the smoke of burning 
houses, especially from Outre-Meuse. 

In every quarter I met Belgian refugees from the 
south, and Netherlanders who wanted to escape to 
their safe native country. The Liege people them- 
selves were not allowed to leave. 

Nearly every hour another proclamation was 
posted ; and this made the people still more nervous. 
One of them brought the information that the prov- 
ince of Liege had to pay a war-tax of fifty million 
francs. Another forbade the people to be out in 
the streets after six o'clock p.m. ; the doors must 
remain open, the windows show the lights. Burn- 
ing and shooting were threatened if any more arms 
should be found, and all houses were to be 
searched. 

Many shops were closed on account of lack of 
stock, as everything had been requisitioned, and as 
yet no traffic was allowed to bring in fresh provi- 

108 



LIEGE AFTER THE OCCUPATION 109 

sions. All this bother made the inhabitants ^ dis- 
contented, but frightened them at the same time; 
they grumbled and whispered, and looked about 
with malicious, flaming eyes, but in mortal 

fear. 

Labourers were called up to assist in reinforcing 
the conquered forts on the left bank of the Meuse, 
the forts which by and by might be used to shell 
their fellow-countrymen, in case the Germans 
should be forced to retire. Nobody will have of- 
fered himself for this work voluntarily, the less so 
as the proclamation wound up as follows : — 

"Des ouvriers volontaires seront embauches a 
partir du 21 Aout sur la rive gauche de laJMeuse, ou 
on fera connaitre les conditions detaillees" : 

("Voluntary workmen will be enrolled from Au- 
gust 2 1 st on the left bank of the Meuse, where de- 
tails of the conditions will be made known.") 

The streets and squares where the high military 
officers had established themselves were closed by 
cordons of soldiers, and nobody was allowed to pass 
them. 

The town was entirely shut off from war- and 
other news. 

I informed a few priests of the Pope's death, 
which had been known in The Netherlands for sev- 
eral days. They knew nothing about it, and asked 
whether I had any proof by me. I gave them De 
Tijd printed with a black border, and armed with 
this document they went to communicate the sad 
news to the Right Reverend Rutten, bishop of Liege. 

I also brought consternation to the nunnery at 



110 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

which my cousin lives by this same report of the 
Holy Father's demise; and the good dear Sisters 
roamed through the passages, wringing their hands 
and repeating: "Le Pape est mort! — le Pape est 
mort!" ('The Pope is dead!") 

I met a doctor at this nunnery, who told me 
highly important news, but in whispers, because in 
these days "even walls have ears": the Allies had 
gained great victories over the Germans. As he 
saw by the expression of my face that I did not 
believe off-hand all he told, he became still more 
impressive in manner, and produced a paper, from 
which he recited: — 

"Great German defeat at Libramont — nine thou- 
sand prisoners taken." 

"In Alsace the French are near the Rhine." 
"The Russians advanced fifty miles into East 
Prussia." 

In the same way the list went on for a goodly 
length, and he became actually angry when even then 
I refused to believe everything. He was especially 
pleased with the account of the victory near Libra- 
mont. He had a friend, also a physician, who had 
been compelled by the Germans to go with them 
in the medical service, and this friend had told him 
this himself. It was remarkable that educated, su- 
perior persons could become so narrow-minded in 
times like these, and believed anything simply be- 
cause they hoped that it might be true. 

The town was full of soldiers, and I had great 
trouble to find lodgings. "Tout est pris par les 
Allemands" ("Everything is taken by the Ger- 



LIEGE AFTER THE OCCUPATION 111 

mans") was the answer I got everywhere, with the 
result that I was still hunting for a bedroom after 
six o'clock, although nobody was then allowed in 
the streets. I was stopped at every turn, and after 
explaining my case got a hint to hurry up. 

At last I found an hotel, where I could have a 
small garret, against which arrangement I had not 
the slightest objection in the circumstances. The 
cafe downstairs looked rather peculiar, with a great 
number of looking-glasses, and ladies with powdered 
faces. These seemed not averse to closer relations 1 
with me, but when I pretended not to understand 
a single word of French, they soon gave it up, 
and showed no further desire for my friendship. 
But I could see quite well that they discussed the 
question whether I was a German officer or a 
spy? 

I went to bed early, for that day I had again 
walked from Maastricht to Liege. My little bed- 
room was quite in the roof of the house, and had 
evidently been used by a servant. 

About midnight I was roused by an infernal noise 
in the street. People yelled and screamed most 
fearfully, and I heard rifle-shots also. 

I felt not the slightest inclination to go and see 
what was the matter, but I stretched myself and 
yawned, feeling much more tired after a couple of 
hours' rest than when I went to bed. The uproar 
went on, and suddenly I thought that I also heard 
a hubbub in the cafe downstairs. And, really, it 
came ever nearer. People rushed up and down the 
stairs, screamed and yelled, doors were banged, in 
short it was as if they were pulling down the house. 



112 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

Very sleepy, I went on listening . . . listening 
. . . probably until I fell asleep again, for I can- 
not remember what happened after. 

I woke up in the morning, and when going down- 
stairs saw that the doors of all the rooms stood open, 
and everything inside was in great disorder. In 
the cafe tables and chairs were overturned, and 
broken looking-glasses lay on the floor. The front 
door was also open, and I walked away. 

And now the explanation? During the night the 
Germans had started house-to-house searches, and 
wherever the doors were not opened quickly enough, 
the soldiers began to shoot. The inhabitants were 
then driven into the street amid loud screams and 
cries. It was also said that some persons had been 
shot. 

By what accident had I not been disturbed? The 
height, perhaps, at which my miserable little garret- 
room was situated. 

The hotel where I stayed that night was called 
Hotel de la Paix; an hotel of peace, indeed! 



CHAPTER VIII 

LOUVAIN DESTROYED 

As soon as I heard about the horrors that took 
place at Louvain, I hastened to try and get there to 
find out, if possible, by personal observation the 
truth of the numberless conflicting stories that would 
undoubtedly grow up from the facts. I expected 
that the situation round about the town would be 
rather critical, and decided to proceed cautiously. 
It is rather a long stretch of nearly forty-five miles, 
but I succeeded in getting to Louvain in the after- 
noon. 

The road itself had prepared me already in 
some degree for the horrors I should find there. 
All the villages through which I passed, excepting 
Tongres and the townlets of St. Trond, Borgloon, 
and Tirlemont, were for the greater part burned 
down or shelled into ruins, The German troops, 
who had been stoutly resisted during their march 
through St. Trond and Tirlemont, had attacked in 
a great rage the civilian population. They set the 
houses on fire and aimed their rifles at the terror- 
stricken civilians who fled from them. The men 
were nearly all killed, but women and children were 
shot as well. 

113 



114 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

On the road from Borgloon to Thienen I had a 
chat with an old crone, who stood weeping by the 
ruins of her miserable little cottage, which she re- 
fused to leave. This little house, which strenuous 
zeal had enabled her to buy, was all she possessed on 
earth besides her two sons, both fallen through the 
murderous lead of those barbarians, and buried in 
the little garden at the back of their ruined home. 
Of another family, living close by, the father and 
two sons were murdered in the same way. 

Between Thienen and Louvain I met endless 
trains of refugees, exactly like those I had seen al- 
ready near Vise, Liege, and other places. These 
also carried their wretched bundles, and children and 
young people did their utmost to encourage and sup- 
port their elders on their arduous path. All these 
people saluted me in a cringing, timid manner, nod- 
ding smilingly and taking off their caps already from 
afar. 

I saw some extremely poor people, very old and 
stiff, to whom walking was nearly impossible. A 
Bavarian soldier escorted them. He had his rifle 
slung across his back and in both hands carried the 
luggage of the unfortunate creatures. He seemed 
to have come a long way already, for he looked 
tired, and the perspiration ran down his face. Al- 
though it is only natural to assist one's fellow- 
creatures, this scene touched me, for hitherto I 
had seen the Germans commit rough, inhuman deeds 
only. 

I noticed the smell of fire already several miles 
from Louvain. On both sides of the road small 
mounds indicated the graves of soldiers who fell 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 115 

during the brave resistance of the Belgians before 
Louvain. A small wooden cross and some pieces 
of accoutrement were the only decorations. Car- 
cases of horses were lying in the fields, from which 
came a disagreeable smell. 

The town was on fire, and ruddy smoke hovered 
over it. Deserted like a wilderness, not a soul 
moved in the streets. The first street I entered was 
the Rue de la Station. Large, imposing mansions 
used to stand here, but the devouring fire consumed 
even the last traces of former greatness. 

All houses were on fire, and every now and then 
walls fell down with a roar of thunder, shrouding 
the greater part of the street in a thick cloud of 
suffocating smoke and dust. Sometimes I had to 
run to escape from the filthy mass. On several 
walls an order was written in chalk directing the 
men to come to the market-place to assist in ex- 
tinguishing the fire, and the women to stay indoors. 
As soon as the order had been obeyed the Germans 
drove the men from the market to the station, 
where they were packed in trucks like cattle. 

Farther on in the Rue de la Station lay nine rot- 
ting carcases of horses, the intestines oozing from 
the bodies, and a greasy substance was poured over 
their skin. The stench was unbearable and made 
breathing nearly impossible, which compelled me to 
jump on my bicycle and escape as quickly as possible 
from the pestilential surroundings. 

The sun was already setting, and became still 
redder, making still more abominable and more in- 
fernal the glare of the burning town. Nobody moved 
about in this abode of death. 



116 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

I roamed about aimlessly in a scorching heat. 
Whither? I did not know myself. I did not know 
Louvain and met nobody whom I might ask some- 
thing. I came near a couple of streets that were 
only ruins; the walls collapsed against each other 
and filled the roadway with rubbish, so that some- 
times I could not see whether I walked on or beside 
the place where the houses used to stand. 

Bicycling was of course out of the question; I 
shouldered my bicycle and stepped across the glow- 
ing cinders, which singed my soles. One spot could 
still be recognised as a street corner. Three soldiers 
emerged there suddenly and aimed at me with their 
rifles. 

I explained who I was, and was then allowed to 
come nearer. They were drunk, and with glassy 
eyes talked about francs-tireurs, the friendship Ger- 
mans felt for Netherlanders, and so on. One of 
them entered the still burning corner house and re- 
turned with three bottles of wine, one a bottle of 
Champagne; corks were drawn and one of the 
bottles handed to me. First I said that I never 
took wine, then that the doctor had forbidden it; 
it was of no use. The fellow who held the bottle 
in front of me got nasty, and shouted: 

"If you don't drink with us you are not our 
friend." At the same time he beat the ground with 
his rifle-butt and, willy-nilly, I had to drink. 

Suddenly several shots sounded in the neighbour- 
hood. The three took their rifles and looked round, 
somewhat scared. They assured me that they would 
protect me. If there had been occasion for it, it 
would have been against their own comrades, for 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 117 

a troop of soldiers came sailing along, swinging 
about their rifles and shooting at the burning houses 
as they walked on, without rhyme or reason, any- 
how and anywhere. These were drunk also. At 
last I was able to shake off my. "friends," and got 
through another street into the market-place, at 
the town-hall and St. Peter's Church. The beautiful 
town-hall happily was not destroyed, as the first 
reports intimated, but St. Peter's had been dam- 
aged most cruelly. The spire had disappeared, 
the roof collapsed, windows broken, the altar 
burned, the pulpit badly damaged, and so forth. The 
two last-named parts were fine works of art. 

For the rest most houses in the market-place were 
on fire. Soldiers were billeted on one of the corner 
houses, and I was of course detained there, but 
released again, after having been requested to show 
up the francs-tireurs. I had to consider also where 
I might pass the night in this burning city? I asked 
an officer's consent to stay the night with the sol- 
diers. He gave his permission if I could get the 
consent of the commanding officer, whom I might 
find at the station; he told me that he was sure 
to grant it. 

Before I got there I passed the Halls of Louvain, 
the building that contained the world-famous 
library, with its numerous art-treasures. Only the 
outer walls were left standing, inside it was all ruins. 
All was reduced to dust, to miserable rubbish, and 
never will one single page be recovered of all those 
thousands of burned manuscripts. 

I was greatly astonished to see a little old man 
sitting by his house, while all those in the neighbour- 



118 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

hood were burning. His own dwelling had escaped 
without much damage, and was only hit by rifle 
bullets. He told me that his family had fled, his 
son with wife and all children but one, a small boy. 
At length he left also, but had lost his way outside 
the town, and returned to his house, where the 
Germans "allowed" him to remain. I considered 
that I might after all sleep better in that house 
than yonder among the soldiers, and asked the 
little man whether he would put me up for the 
night. He did not object at all; but in spite of 
my pressing, he refused absolutely to accept any 
payment. 

"But," he said, "but perhaps you brought some 
bread with you to eat on the road, and I should 
like to have a piece of that . . . not for myself 
. . . but for my grandchild; we had nothing to eat 
all day long, and the little boy is so ... is so 
hungry." 

The poor man wept, and, although I had taken 
with me no more than two pieces of bread-and- 
butter, which I had not touched yet, I could not 
bear the sight of these poor, hungry things, and 
handed over to them my food. 

As I passed a Red Cross Hospital, partly spared, 
I noticed a Flemish doctor, who first looked at me 
from the door held ajar, and then came nearer; a 
strapping young fellow with a black beard. After 
I had made myself known as a Netherlander, he 
was clearly surprised, and it seemed as though he 
had a lot to ask or to tell. I expected to hear a 
torrent of abuse against the Huns, who had de- 
stroyed everything, and murdered so many innocent 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 119 

people, or a lament about the valuable treasures 
of the library, which also had not been spared; 
but no, other thoughts occupied his mind. With 
a slightly trembling voice he asked: 

"Ah well, you come from The Netherlands; tell 
me whether it is true that you have let the Ger- 
mans through, allowing them to ravish us? Tell 
me whether this is true?" 

The man became quite excited, and took hold of 
my sleeve. He looked me straight in the face, as 
if he wanted to find out by the expression of my 
eyes whether I spoke the truth. I could easily 
stand the scrutinising look, for I knew too well how 
utterly false those suspicions were. So I replied 
with great emphasis : 

'T know that those rumours have been spread 
about, but also that they were contradicted by Bel- 
gian officials. I know also, and can affirm it from 
my own personal observation, that there is not a 
single word of truth in those accusations, for I 
passed the early days of the war in the district where 
the fight was going on." 

The good man's face became quite cheerful, he 
grasped my hand, deeply moved, and, pressing it 
warmly, said: 

"Ah, well, I am sincerely glad to hear that. You 
cannot believe what awful sorrow it gave us, 
Flemings, when we heard that the Netherlanders 
were conspiring with the Germans." 

The doctor now became more communicative on 
other matters. According to him the Germans con- 
tended that the inhabitants had been shooting from 
windows and cellars, in order to prevent the garri- 



120 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

son from assisting their comrades, who were fighting 
a battle against the Belgians at a distance of about 
four miles and a half from the town. Such an 
organised action of the inhabitants, under the 
tyrannical rule of the Germans during the eight 
days before the destruction, he called impossible, and 
therefore the whole accusation absurd. At any rate 
they had felt that the destruction was coming, and 
had been planned systematically, for during those 
eight days the Germans had plundered the popula- 
tion, and taken from them all bread, even what 
they required to feed themselves. 

To avenge this alleged shooting by civilians the 
fires had been kindled in the houses, maxims placed 
in the streets, women and children beaten, men im- 
prisoned or murdered. 

The discovery by the Germans of so-called depots 
of Belgian rifles, each rifle labelled with the name 
of a citizen, was a gigantic "misunderstanding." 
Already before the Germans occupied the town the 
burgomaster had issued an order that all arms should 
be delivered. The inhabitants had obeyed, and the 
rifles were provided with a card, so that each 
might be returned to the lawful owner after the 
war. This collection of arms has been used by 
the Germans as evidence of an organised revolt of 
the citizens. 

When I told the doctor that I had to go to the 
station, he explained to me how I could get there 
without walking across red hot cinders, and I fol- 
lowed his advice. I walked through quarters which 
used to be the pride of the city, but were now turned 
into heaps of rubbish. 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 121 

They made also sad havoc of the Boulevard de 
Namur. Many mansions of the aristocracy had 
been destroyed and many people killed. There 
were corpses still lying on the Boulevard as I passed, 
all in a state of decay. The smell was unbearable 
and the sight loathsome, especially when I saw 
several drunken soldiers insulting the bodies of these 
unfortunate people. 

In the flowerbeds in front of the station many 
corpses had been buried, especially those of soldiers 
who had been killed in the fight near Louvain. 
The station itself was well guarded, but, thanks to 
my passport and resolute manner, I gained admis- 
sion and was finally ushered into the presence of 
the man who is responsible for the destruction of 
Louvain, Von Manteuffel. 

I had expected to meet a terrible creature, but 
must admit that he was as kind as possible. As 
soon as he had learned from my papers that I was 
a Netherland journalist, he jumped up and stood 
in the attitude as though he saw in me the personi- 
fication of the Kaiser. He already probably felt 
the pangs of remorse, and now wanted to try and 
justify himself as far as possible in the eyes of the 
public. 

He stated that the cause of the destruction was 
the necessity of punishment, because Belgian soldiers 
in civilian dress had stayed behind in Louvain, 
waiting to attack the German army from behind at 
the first favourable opportunity. They thought 
that their chance had come when for a short time 
the German troops had to be withdrawn from the 
fortified camp of Antwerp to take their share in a 



122 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

fight near Louvain. Von Manteuffel thought that 
by attacking the troops in the town the Belgians 
hoped to prevent the Louvain garrison from assist- 
ing their comrades. 

He did not seem to mind much the destruction 
of the Halls with their world-famous wealth of 
books; anyway he spoke about it in an unconcerned 
tone. But he seemed to attach great importance 
to the safety of the town-hall. He said that when 
the buildings adjoining the town-hall began to burn, 
he had them blown up in order to keep the fire 
away from the beautiful monument. 

As darkness was coming on I asked him whether 
it was not dangerous to pass the night in the house 
of that little old man, whom I mentioned above. 
He saw nothing dangerous in it, as by far the greater 
part of the town was deserted, and no attack need 
be feared. 

So I thought that I might chance it. The house 
was some distance from the station, near the railway 
line; opposite stood a sort of goods station guarded 
by six soldiers. Before entering the house I had 
a chat with them, for I thought that if I explained 
my position and told them that the commanding 
officer gave me permission to pass the night in that 
house, I should be much safer if anything should 
happen during the night, because they knew then 
that they had to deal with a neutral journalist. 
They might moreover warn me should the fire that 
was raging all around reach that house. So I told 
the whole story to these fellows, who were also more 
than half drunk, showed them my passports, gave 
them some cigars, and after a friendly chat went 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 123 

to the old man who was to put me up for the 
night. 

There was of course no gas lit, and there was no 
paraffin lamp in the house. I was shown to my room 
by the dim light of a candle. The old man could 
hardly get up the stairs, as he was trembling all 
over in consequence of the days passed in fear and 
dread. The ceiling of my bedroom had been pierced 
by bullets, and the fragments covered nearly the 
whole of the bed, which had not been made after 
it was last used. The unaccustomed work of strip- 
ping and making the bed was soon finished, and 
I was hardly ready when a soldier entered at the 
door, which had to be left open by order, and 
shouted from the bottom of the staircase that I 
was not allowed to have a light, and must blow out 
my candle. 

I was soon fast asleep, tired out by my bicycle 
ride of that day of about forty-five miles, and my 
wanderings through Liege. But my rest was not to 
be a long one. At about ten o'clock I was awakened 
by a great noise on the stairs, and was surprised to 
see six armed soldiers in my room. That is not 
exactly a pleasant manner of waking up after so 
short a sleep. They informed me in a gruff voice 
that I had to get up, to dress and follow them. As 
I obeyed the order, I asked what gave me this un- 
expected honour; but they refused to enlighten me 
on that point. 

After I had dressed in their presence, they 
searched all my pockets, and felt all over my body 
to find out whether I had any arms concealed about 
me. Then three soldiers went downstairs, I had to 



124 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

follow these, and the other three came in the rear. I 
did not understand at all of what capital crime I 
was suspected which made it necessary to have me 
arrested by six soldiers armed to the teeth. 

We waited in the street for two of the soldiers 
who went to fetch the old man. After waiting a 
good while the poor wretch appeared between them. 
He wept profusely, and between his loud sobs af- 
firmed repeatedly that he was innocent, that he did 
not know me, that I told him I was a Netherland 
journalist, and so on, and so on: "Oh, gentlemen! — 
oh, gentlemen!" he exclaimed, "I must not leave my 
little boy . . . my laddie; ... he is quite alone. 
. . . Oh, let me go!" . . . 

I pitied him from the bottom of my heart, and 
tried to console him by remarking that it was all a 
misunderstanding, and that I would see to it that 
he would soon be released. 

"Come now quietly," I said; "so much the sooner 
you will be back with your laddie." 

But he did not take any notice of all my exhorta- 
tions and was entirely impervious to them in his 
grief. So I went to the station side By side with 
the weeping man, and surrounded by the six soldiers. 
The crackle of the flames, the sound of collapsing 
houses seemed more terrifying in the night than 
in day-time, and now and again I got a shock when 
suddenly, by the uncertain light of the flames, I saw 
the corpse of a civilian lying in the dark shade of 
the tall trees on the Boulevard. 

Whenever our escort fancied that they saw some- 
thing, they stopped and called out to the supposed 
approaching persons: "Who goes there?" Some- 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 125 

times it was only some shrubs that they saw; at 
other times patrolling German soldiers. "Parole?" 
was asked: "Duisburg!" and after that answer they 
came nearer. At the station I was taken to an of- 
ficer who sat at a table on the platform and had 
lit up his nearest surroundings by means of a paraffin- 
lamp. My little old man wept now so badly that 
he was quite unmanageable, and the officer 
made up his mind to get rid of him as quickly as 
possible. 

"Tell me, father," he began, "did you allow 
this man by your side to stay the night at your 
house?" 

u Oh ... oh ... let me ... go to my laddie 
... let me go ... oh ... oh .. ." 

"Yes, all right, you may go, but we only want 
you to tell us what you know of this man." 

"Oh — oh ... I don't understand you ... let 
me go ... my little boy ... we have nothing to 
eat . . . we are innocent ... I do not know the 
gentleman ... oh ... oh!" 

I took the liberty to explain to the officer that 
the man did not understand him, and stated that 
he did not know me. 

"Then, why did you want to stay at the man's 
house? — what brought you here?" 

Thus my examination opened. I told him every- 
thing from beginning to end, also that the command- 
ing officer had given me permission to stay at that 
house, that I had shown my papers to the soldiers 
at the goods station opposite the house, and that I 
did not understand why I should be put to all this 
inconvenience. 



126 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

He explained to me that one of those soldiers 
accused me of . . . spying and arson. He had 
thought to recognise in me a person who had asked 
him that afternoon whether he was ... a Belgian 
or a German soldier, and whom he had also seen 
escaping from a factory which was in full blaze a 
moment later. 

Highly indignant, I claimed of course that that 
soldier should also be called; but I was told that 
I had better assume a more modest tone. I then 
asked to be taken to the commanding officer, whom 
I had seen that afternoon; but he was away on 
inspection or something, and would not return before 
the next morning. 

After this the officer examined my papers care- 
fully one by one, and had to admit that they were 
in perfect order. Still, he had no authority to take 
a decision before I had been seen by the command- 
ing officer. 

The old man was allowed to go home, escorted 
by the same soldiers. At the very moment that 
he was about to leave, I happened to notice on the 
platform a gigantic heap of loaves, brought in by 
train for the soldiers. 

"Do you know," I asked the officer, "that this 
old man and his grandchild are starving? He put 
me up because I gave him a couple of pieces of 
bread-and-butter for the child." He looked at me 
somewhat crossly, but inquired all the same whether 
my information was correct, and then gave the 
old man two loaves, which dried his tears imme- 
diately, and for which he thanked the donor in a 
quivering voice. 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 127 

Two soldiers now took everything I had in my 
pockets, even my watch and my purse. This 
brought also to light a German map of Belgium, 
with a stamp "For military use only." I was told 
in a gruff voice that this was a highly suspicious 
thing, and that they could not understand how it 
got into my possession. I replied quite coolly that 
I had bought the thing in Aix-la-Chapelle for one 
mark, where it could be had in many shops, and 
that the words "For the military only" merely re- 
vealed the shrewd German commercial instinct, 
which knows that people always like to possess things 
which are not meant for them. 

I believe that this made him angry; at least he 
ordered me to take off my shoes also, and their 
inside was carefully examined. 

I was now escorted to a spot where on some straw 
several soldiers were sleeping, who had to do sentry- 
go at two o'clock that night. It was a part of the 
platform which was not even roofed, and entirely 
under the open sky. But they anyway had straw 
to lie on, and sufficient cover, but I had to lie down 
between them on the flags, without any blanket. A 
separate sentry was commanded to watch me ; every 
two hours another was charged with the task. I 
was allowed to try and sleep, with the warning 
that I should be shot at the slightest attempt to 
escape. 

It was a chilly night, and a dense heavy fog made 
it impossible to see anything. . . . My "bed- 
fellows" raged and fumed at me, saying that I was 
one of those villains who had treacherously shot at 
them. I shivered from the cold, and felt, as it were, 



128 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the dampness of the wet stone floor entering my 
system. 

While all the others were denouncing me, one 
soldier was ready to believe that I was a peaceful 
foreign journalist, and that all the misunderstand- 
ing would disappear the next morning as soon as I 
should be taken to the commanding officer. He took 
pity on me, and got a thick soldier's coat for me as 
cover. I still feel grateful to the man for it ! But 
sleep was out of the question on that wet floor, in 
the dense fog. When the guard was changed and 
soldiers came back, or others went, they could not 
see in the dark where they went, and treated me to 
a kick against my head or some other part of my 
body. 

It was a fantastic night. Trains arrived out of 
the foggy darkness, their screeching whistle resound- 
ing from the far distance, and when they steamed 
into the station a storm of noise arose. All these 
trains brought British prisoners of war, captured 
by the Germans at St. Quentin, and hundreds of 
German soldiers escorted the trains, which were 
all covered over with green branches, and looked 
like copse-wood sliding along the railroad. As soon 
as they rumbled into the station the escorts sang 
loudly their patriotic songs, and "Germany before 
all other!" ("Deutschland iiber Alles!") vibrated 
through the fog. 

The soldiers lying round about me, and those in 
other parts of the station, got up, shouting, "There 
are the British," and ran towards the arriving trains. 
They jeered at the beaten enemies in all sorts of 
vulgar and filthy words, which made the German 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 129 

enthusiasm absolutely lacking in chivalry. Eight 
trains with captured British arrived during that 
night. 

At seven o'clock in the morning I was taken to 
the commanding officer, and was glad to see him 
again. He jumped up immediately and came to 
me with a charming smile, when I pointed to my 
escort and explained that I was a prisoner. 

He flushed red with anger, and asked the sergeant 
what it all meant. The latter told the story and 
I filled in some details. 

He showed the most profound indignation, and 
offered his apologies with lively gestures. He said 
that my papers proved quite clearly that I was a 
Netherland journalist. He declined to allow any 
further examination, and gave the peremptory order 
that everything that had been taken away from me 
should be returned at once. When I had put every- 
thing in my pockets, he asked: 

"Have they given you back everything?" 

"Yes, sir," I replied, "excepting my pocket- 
knife." 

"Where is that knife?" Von Manteuffel asked the 
sergeant who had fetched my belongings. 

"But that is a weapon, general!" 

"Return that knife at once!" 

The general expatiated once more on the francs- 
tireurs of Louvain, and asked me to explain in my 
papers without fail that the citizens had to thank 
themselves for what had happened. The sergeant 
who had taken me to him was ordered to escort me, 
that I might not have any further trouble with the 
soldiers in the city. 



130 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

I started on my return journey to The Nether- 
lands sick to death. The consequences of lying on 
that wet floor made themselves badly felt, and be- 
sides being quite stiff and chilly, my interior was 
badly out of order. 

Many refugees returned to Louvain that morning 
simply driven by hunger. I myself lived still on 
the breakfast I had at Maastricht on the previous 
day, and badly wanted something to eat, but still 
more a cup of hot coffee, to warm my chilled body. 
I was able to get the coffee — without milk or sugar 
— from a peasant along the road, but food was out 
of the question. Most of the people had nothing 
left, others saved a piece of bread as hard as a 
brick for the moment when hunger might drive them 
to extreme distress. Whatever sums I offered, noth- 
ing could be had before I came to Tirlemont, where 
I was able to buy three eggs. 

I had a rather amusing meeting at Tongres, 
with a Netherland colleague, who was on his way 
to Louvain. 

" Where do you come from?" was his first ques- 
tion. 

"From Louvain !" 

"Have you been there already? I am going 
there too. How are things there?" 

"Have you got anything for me to eat?" I asked, 
not heeding his words. 

I said it quite innocently, without any other de- 
sire beyond that of taking off the edge of my really 
trying hunger. But the effect of my question was 
surprising indeed. He looked at me dumbfounded, 
and asked: 



LOUVAIN DESTROYED 131 

"But where did you stay then during the night?" 

"I have been arrested." 

"And did you not get anything to eat?" 

"No!" 

He was back in The Netherlands before me. 



CHAPTER IX 

LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 

The next day at Maastricht I tried to cure the evil 
results of that night on the damp floor in Louvain 
by eating great quantities of rice and drinking much 
cocoa with liberal doses of cinnamon, but as it was 
of no avail, I started again the next morning. 

The majority of the refugees returning to Lou- 
vain belonged to the lower classes, and they began 
to loot and plunder the town, encouraged thereto 
by the German soldiers, who threw the things into 
the streets, and said: "Take it, if you like!" In 
extenuation of the looting and plundering I might 
say that the poor wretches tried before all to get 
hold of half-burned eatables. 

During my first visit I estimated the number of 
civilian victims at about eighty. This number 
turned out to be larger, as many during the second 
fire fled to their cellars, exits of which were however 
choked up by the collapsing walls. The corpses 
of numerous suffocated citizens were found in these 
cellars. 

At many monasteries I heard painful details of 
the treatment suffered by priests. The majority 
were made prisoners, and many were tied to trees 
during a whole night and afterwards released. 
Several were killed. I heard, for example, at the 

132 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 133 

convent of the Jesuits that a student of theology, 
Eugene Dupiereux, had been murdered, simply be- 
cause he was found to have kept a diary of the war 
in which he had expressed a rather unfavourable 
opinion about the Germans. In the same manner 
two Josephite brothers were murdered, who later 
on were found to be Germans ; of other priests who 
had been killed, the names were not yet known. 

Many clerical gentlemen connected with the Uni- 
versity had been ill-treated in the most atrocious 
manner. The architect Lenertz, a native of Luxem- 
burg, also connected with the University, had been 
shot, for no reason at all, before the eyes of his 
wife at the moment that he left the house. And 
Louvain was so effectively cut off from the outer 
world that in most convents I was asked whether 
the rumour was true that the Pope was dead! 
And at that time his successor had already been ap- 
pointed. 

I succeeded in laying my hands on an original 
copy of a proclamation that ought not to have been 
posted before the following day. I took the docu- 
ment with me to The Netherlands, and it is of spe- 
cial interest, because in it the Germans admit to 
have tyrannised the people, and to have not only 
burned Louvain, but also ransacked the town. The 
proclamation had been drawn up in concert with the 
German authorities and was approved by them. It 
was in French and in Flemish, and read as follows : 

"PROCLAMATION 

"To the inhabitants of the City of Louvain 
"We have in vain visited our municipal repre- 



134 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

sentatives. The last of them, Alderman Schmidt, 
who was prevented from fulfilling his office, 
surrendered to us the municipal power on August 
30th. 

"I believe that it is my duty to take that task upon 
me, assisted by some well-known burgesses, who have 
undertaken to stand by me. 

"In agreement with the German Military author- 
ity I invite the inhabitants of Louvain to return to 
the city, and to take up again their usual occupa- 
tions. 

u The orders issued by Monsieur Collins remain 
valid. 

"I mention more especially: — 

"1. That it is prohibited to be out of doors after 
seven o'clock (Belgian time) in the evening. 

"2. That all who are in possession of any arms, 
of whatever description, or any munition must at 
once deliver everything at the town-hall. 

"3. That everything that may appear hostile to 
the German army must be avoided with the utmost 
care. 

"The German military authority have promised 
us that on these conditions no further burning and 
looting shall take place and that the population shall 
no longer be threatened or embarrassed. 

"We are engaged now most actively upon the re- 
establishment of the municipal services: Police, 
Municipal Register, and the Services of the Canals, 
which services will all be reopened as soon as pos- 
sible. 

"The police service will be performed in the day- 
time by some volunteers, who will wear an armlet in 
the municipal colours, and an identity card, both 
officially stamped. Well-minded persons, who are 
willing to perform these duties, are urgently re- 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 135 

quested to present themselves at the town-hall to-day 
at four o'clock in the afternoon. 

"The acting burgomaster, A. Nerincx. 
"The town-clerk, Eug. Marguery. 
"The committee of burgesses! Dr. Boine, 
Pastor Claes, Dr. P. Debaisieux, Dr. Deco- 
ninck, Ch. de la Vallee-Poussin, Mon- 

SEIGNEUR DEPLOIGNE, P. HELLEPUTTE, A. 

Thiery, Dr. Tits, L. Verhelst, V. Vin- 

GEROEDT. 
"LOUVAIN, 
"September ist, 1914-" 

Pastor Claes, mentioned in the above proclama- 
tion, has done very much for the miserable Lou- 
vain population ; they owe him especially much grati- 
tude for an act of devotion with regard to the mur- 
dered victims. 

In the immediate neighbourhood of the railway 
station a house was being built, of which only the 
foundations were laid. The place showed nothing 
beyond a huge cavity. I had noticed already several 
times that there was an atrocious stench near the 
station, which at last became unendurable. Pastor 
Claes, who courageously entered all destroyed houses 
to look for the dead, had discovered the victims also 
in this place. In the cave just mentioned he found 
sixteen corpses of burghers, two priests among them. 
In order to remove them from the street the Ger- 
mans had simply thrown them into that cave, with- 
out covering the corpses in any way. They had been 
lying there for days, and were decaying rapidly. 

I witnessed Pastor Claes's labours for a moment 
only, for the smell was unbearable even at a some- 



136 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

what considerable distance. The good pastor perse- 
vered in the work after having started it, with the 
assistance of some faithful helpers, who all of 
them had sealed their mouths with a sponge soaked 
in some disinfectant. The corpses were taken from 
the cave, money and documents put away in sep- 
arate bags, and the unfortunate owners coffined and 
blessed. 

During the next days I found a hospitable domicile 
at the convent of the Sacred Heart on the Namur 
Canal ("Naamsche Vest"). It is a seminary for 
missionaries, and when I went to them for the first 
time I had a letter, from their head, the "provincial" 
in The Netherlands, who sent the order that all the 
theological students should be transferred to The 
Netherlands as quickly as possible. They received 
me with the greatest kindness, and ever since I en- 
joyed their hospitality. 

A short time after the destruction I was even 
obliged to accept it for a whole week, as on the 
same day on which I arrived in Louvain for another 
visit there was renewed fighting round the town. 
The Belgians had advanced as far as Rotselair, 
where the next day they held their ground against 
overwhelmingly superior numbers; but at last they 
had to retire, leaving a great many dead behind. The 
Belgians had even got on to the road Tirlemont- 
Louvain, and blown up the railway line in two places. 

On that occasion the Germans arrested me at 
about two miles from Tirlemont. Firstly, because 
I travelled by bicycle, and secondly, because I was 
accused of having "cooked" one of my passports. 

This was so far true that I had altered the dates 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 137 

of a passport, which allowed me to stay in Louvain 
from September 6th till the 14th, into the 8th and 
the 1 6th. When taken to the commanding officer 
in Tirlemont, I convinced him so thoroughly of my 
complete innocence, that the next day I was allowed 
to go on to Louvain. 

There the German authorities detained me for a 
full week, by prohibiting me to return: "for the sake 
of your own safety," they told me courteously. Dur- 
ing the day I was busy enough, and in the evenings 
I enjoyed the pleasant company of the three fathers 
of the Sacred Heart who had remained in the mis- 
sion house, and with whose photographic instrument 
I took many a snapshot of the Louvain ruins. 

The mission house had become a sanctuary for a 
good many people. As bread was lacking, two 
brothers fried pancakes all day long and distributed 
them among the numberless persons who asked for 
food. Among these were people who a few days 
earlier belonged to the well-to-do, but who saw their 
business, in which often more than their own capital 
was invested, wrecked by fire, and were now obliged 
to appeal to the charity of these monks. Indeed 
during the first weeks after that terrible event many 
starved, and I assisted often at the distribution of 
the pancakes, because they were short-handed. 

In this grand old monastery, both inside and out 
a jewel of architecture, about five hundred people 
had found shelter. They were lodged in halls, 
rooms, and kitchens. The fathers gave them every- 
thing in the way of food they might require, but 
they had to do their own cooking. As not one of 
these people had a home left, which they could call 



138 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

their own, no wonder that they greatly admired the 
fathers. Often when I strolled about with one of 
these, one or other of the refugees came to him to 
press his hand and express gratitude for the hos- 
pitality offered. 

In this way I got into conversation with a middle- 
aged lady. Her husband had been shot, and she got 
a bullet in her arm, which had to be amputated in 
consequence. The poor creature had lost all 
courage, and lived on her nerves only. It was 
remarkable to hear this father find the right words, 
and succeed in making her calm and resigned. Be- 
fore she left us, she had promised that for her 
children's sake she would do all in her power to 
control herself. 

During the week of my compulsory stay in Lou- 
vain I had also the privilege of making the acquaint- 
ance of two brave compatriots; I mean Professor 
Noyons and his wife. 

They never left Louvain. On August 25th in- 
formation was sent to the Leo XIII Institution for 
Philosophy, a building turned into a hospital, that 
a hundred wounded men might be expected towards 
evening. That evening began the wild shooting and 
burning of houses by the Germans, and soon a 
large number of wounded was taken to the Institu- 
tion. Suddenly Professor Noyons recognised one 
of his servants among the wounded who were 
brought to him for treatment. She had three bul- 
lets in her side. After having bandaged her wounds, 
he hurried away to his house, in order to see what 
had happened. 

He thought that it was sufficiently protected by 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 139 

the immense Red Cross flag, and the words written 
on the door by the Germans themselves : "Professor 
Noyons, Netherland physician, to be spared." But 
he had been mistaken. The soldiers did not respect 
anything, and had forced an entry into the house, 
wounded that servant, and then wrecked everything 
in the most scandalous manner. Beautiful large 
Japanese jars had been smashed to pieces, valuable 
furniture damaged by knocking and breaking large 
pieces out of it with rifles and bayonets. A fine 
carpet was burned, as well as many pieces of furni- 
ture. A hole was burned even in the floor. 

Professor Noyons took me over the house and 
showed me the destruction. Bullets had been lodged 
in the inner walls after piercing the windows and 
on a level with the windows. By lengthening the 
line of trajection one found that the bullets must 
have been fired at a distance of nearly six hundred 
yards, which proves that the Germans simply fired 
at random. 

As Professor Noyons heard that other hospitals, 
churches, and ancient buildings were not spared 
either, he went to the commanding officer through 
the rain of bullets, clad in his white overalls, to 
claim protection for everything that lawfully dis- 
played the Red Cross flag, and to request that 
churches, convents, ancient buildings, and especially 
the town-hall should be spared. It is only owing to 
his intervention that not much more was destroyed 
in Louvain. 

On the Thursday of the week of destruction the 
inhabitants were notified that they had to leave the 



140 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

town, but Professor Noyons and his wife decided to 
stay on, as they could not leave the one hundred and 
fifty wounded men who were laid up at the Institution. 

They carried all those patients into the cellars on 
stretchers, and there waited with the nursing staff 
for the bombardment that had been announced, but 
never came off. 

Professor Noyons took me all over the hospital, 
and if I should describe all I saw and heard there, 
that story alone would fill volumes. He took me, 
for example, to a boy of eight years old, whose 
shoulder was shattered by rifle-shots. His father 
and mother, four little brothers and a sister, had 
been murdered. The boy himself was saved be- 
cause they thought that he was dead, whereas he was 
only unconscious. When I asked for his parents, 
brothers and sister, he put up his one hand and, 
counting by his little fingers, he mentioned their 
names. 

There lay also a woman, with one leg amputated. 
Her husband had been murdered, another bullet 
had entered the leg of the baby in her arms. An- 
other woman had her child murdered in her arms. 

Women and children had frequently been ill- 
treated in a most atrocious manner, aged and sick 
people were dragged out of the houses, and flung 
down in the street. This happened, for example, to 
an old man, who lay dying in his cellar. In spite 
of the supplications of his wife and two sons, he was 
flung on the cobbles, where he died soon. The sons 
were taken prisoners and sent away. His widow 
assists at present nursing other unfortunates at 
Professor Noyons' hospital. 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 141 

A paralysed woman who had also been flung into 
the street was nursed at the hospital, and lay with 
many others in the chapel of the Institution, which 
had been turned into a ward. 

Belgian and German soldiers found excellent nurs- 
ing here. Many convalescents were allowed to walk 
in the large garden, which was happily divided by 
a large wall, so that the one-time combatants could 
be separated. 

Professor and Mrs. Noyons were busy day and 
night on behalf of their fellow-men, and one could 
quite well tell by their looks that they were over- 
worked. They took their rest in the kitchen, which 
was built in the basement. All male and female 
voluntary nurses took their meals there. 

Once I enjoyed the pleasure of partaking of such 
a "dinner," as the guest of Professor and Mrs. 
Noyons. The company was very mixed, and men 
who never in their lives had ever done anything else 
but spoiling their eyes for the sake of science, by 
reading all manner of ancient manuscripts, were now 
busy, dressed in a blue apron, stirring the soup and 
mashing potatoes or vegetables. The menu com- 
prised nothing but potatoes, a little vegetables, and 
a finely calculated piece of meat. 

At that dinner I also made the acquaintance of 
Professor Nerincx, the acting burgomaster. It was 
a courageous act to assume the government of the 
town destroyed by the Germans; he did it for the 
sake of his fellow-citizens, who will never be able 
to requite their indebtedness to the temporary burgo- 
master for what he did for them; and most of them 
do not even know it. 



142 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

The war is not over yet, and much is still hidden 
under a veil, but after the war it will undoubtedly 
be the duty of the Louvain people to twine a magnifi- 
cent wreath round the three names Noyons-Nerincx- 
Claes. 

The names of many priests will be found in the 
register of Belgian martyrs. I have mentioned al- 
ready some who, although innocent, gave their life 
for their country. During my week's stay at Lou- 
vain I heard of other cases. The priest of Corbeek- 
Loo, for example, was simply tortured to death on 
account of one of his sermons in which he said that 
the fight of the Belgian army was beautiful "because 
it lawfully resists an unlawful invasion," and further 
for announcing a Holy Requiem Mass for the souls 
of the "murdered" citizens. 

At Blauwput, near Louvain, where, according to 
the Germans, there had been also shooting, many 
houses were set on fire and the men placed in a row. 
It was then announced that by way of punishment 
every fifth man would be shot. When the Germans 
counted as tenth the father of a large family, that 
man fainted, and they simply killed number eleven, 
a Capuchin. 

Very many other cases of martyrdom among 
priests remained unknown to me, but the various 
Belgian bishops examined all these events with 
praiseworthy zeal and scrupulousness, and by taking 
extensive evidence established the fact that in no 
case the victims could be reproached with any act 
that justified the sentence against them. After the 
war the world will surely be made acquainted with 
the horrible truth. 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 143 

The foregoing record of my experiences in Lou- 
vain will make it sufficiently clear to the unprejudiced 
reader that the destruction and wholesale murders 
were nothing but wanton crimes committed by the 
German troops stationed there, crimes which it is 
impossible to justify on any ground. 

The duration of the war has more or less sur- 
prised me, and I postponed writing this book for a 
long time as I wished to quote the evidence of per- 
sons in high places, clergymen, and educated foreign- 
ers. As the war is not over yet, I must omit these 
in the interest of their safety. 

But from my personal knowledge and the evi- 
dence referred to, I am able to establish the follow- 
ing facts in connection with the events that preceded 
and followed the destruction of Louvain. 

On August 25 th the Antwerp garrison made a 
sortie, in the direction of Louvain. At the begin- 
ning the Belgians were successful, and came within 
four and a half miles of this town. For a moment 
the situation became critical, and at about seven 
o'clock a small troop of cavalry came at a furious 
gallop from the scene of battle to Louvain, probably 
to summon the assistance of the garrison. 

At that hour the Namur Canal ("Naamsche 
Vest") was already dark in consequence of the thick 
foliage of tall trees, and suddenly the wild horse- 
men were shot at. Several neutral witnesses estab- 
lished the fact that this was done by a small troop of 
German infantry who came from the station, prob- 
ably on their way to the battle-field, and thought 
that Belgian cavalry came racing into the town. 

The men stopped their horses, dismounted, and 



144 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

returned the fire from behind their animals. This 
went on for about a quarter of an hour. Every 
one was alarmed by this shooting; other soldiers 
came racing in from the station, and others ran to 
and fro near that building crying, "A surprise at- 
tack!" Some, thinking that the attack came from 
the advancing Belgians, rushed to the place where 
the fighting took place, others misunderstood the 
cry, believed that the citizens assaulted them, and 
began to shoot at these, and at the houses. 

Before those on the Naamsche Vest found out 
their mistake, the shooting was going on in the 
greater part of the town, and the excited men, who 
at first had been shooting at each other, soon joined 
the rest. Some wounded troopers were taken to 
one of the convents on the Vest, but a couple of 
hours later they were suddenly fetched away again. 

The whole evening and the next day the Germans 
went on shooting people and firing houses. It is 
worth recording that the library was already set 
on fire that same evening of the fray on the Naam- 
sche Vest; it was burning at eight o'clock. 

On Thursday everyone, even the persons staying 
in the Institution and hospitals, were ordered to 
leave the town, as it was to be shelled. They seemed 
to have no pity even on the wretched wounded men. 
Only the male and female nurses remained with 
these, of their own free will, determined to die with 
them if necessary. 

The inhabitants were driven to the station, where 
the husbands were cruelly separated from their wives 
and several persons were shot. Other men were 
escorted to a place behind the station, and their 



LOUVAIN UNDER THE MAILED FIST 145 

wives and children were told that those men were 
going to be shot. The poor things heard indeed 
the click-clack of the rifles and thought that their 
dear ones were dead. However, many returned 
later, and their "shooting" seems to have been a 
mere sham. 

Great crowds walked the long way to Tirlemont. 
They were constantly threatened by German sol- 
diers, who aimed their rifles at them; passing officers 
commanded from time to time that some should 
stay behind, and others were shot. Especially did 
the clerics amongst the refugees suffer a great deal; 
many were not only scandalously scoffed at, but also 
maliciously injured. The greater part of the Ger- 
mans showed a strong anti-Catholic bias, in particu- 
lar against the clergy, whom they accused of having 
incited the people against them. 

This is only a short record of the destruction of 
Louvain, the truthfulness of which will be firmly 
and fully established after the war by extensive, ac- 
curately drawn up declarations. 

Louvain had been destroyed because a crowd of 
wanton soldiers, who were garrisoned there, who 
hated the Belgians, and who had been kept within 
bounds with difficulty, seized on their own stupid 
mistake to give rein to their passions. 

Their commanding officer was the worthy head 
of such a mob, a heartless creature, who did not 
show the slightest remorse for the destruction of 
those magnificent libraries, set on fire by his order. 

It has been alleged that civilians had been shoot- 
ing from the Halls, but when a committee examined 
the remains in the building with the consent of 



146 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the military, they found there the carcase of a Ger- 
man horse. They were ordered to stop their inves- 
tigations immediately, for that horse was evidence 
. . . that German military men had been billeted 
on the building, and thus no civilians could have been 
there. This will also be published later in the re- 
ports. 

The German authority left indeed no effort un- 
tried to cover up their atrocious action. Already 
in a communication from Wolff, dated August 29th, 
they attempted to violate the truth by asserting 
that : — 

"The houses caught fire from burning benzine, 
and the flames burst out in other quarters also. On 
Wednesday afternoon part of the town and the 
northern suburb were in flames." 

They have not been able to maintain that story 
for very long; the truth overtook the lie. 

May all the nations of the world after the war 
collaborate to compensate Louvain for her martyr- 
dom, see that this city shall be restored to her former, 
happy prosperity, and get a library which approaches 
as much as possible the one she lost. The Germans 
can probably do their part by investigating where 
the motor-cars went which left the Halls on that 
wretched Tuesday night, heavily laden with books. 



CHAPTER X 

ALONG THE MEUSE TO HUY, ANDENNE, 
AND NAMUR 

Between two of my several trips to Louvain I 
made one to Namur in the beginning of September, 
after having secured at Liege, by a trick, a splendid 
permit which enabled me to travel even by motor- 
car. 

There was a little more order in the whole dis- 
trict round Liege, since the Germans behaved more 
decently, and provisions had arrived. The shock, 
which the burning and butchering of so many places 
and persons gave to the whole world, had also in- 
fluenced the conduct of the Germans, and from the 
beginning of September they made a practice of 
asking each time when they thought that they had 
behaved decently: "Well, are we such barbarians 
as the world calls us?" 

In this relative calm the population felt somewhat 
relieved, and ventured again into the streets. Out- 
doors on the "stoeps" of the houses men sat on 
their haunches smoking their pipe and playing a 
game of piquet. Most of them were vigorous fel- 
lows, miners, who did not mind any amount of work, 
but now came slowly under the demoralising influence 
of idleness. 

My motor whirled along the gloriously fine road 
147 



148 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

to Huy. It is a delicious tour through the beautiful 
valley of the Meuse, along sloping light-green roads. 
Had the circumstances not been so sad, I should 
have enjoyed it better. 

I had already been near Huy, at a time when 
several burning houses shrouded the whole town in 
clouds of smoke. On August 24th, at ten o'clock 
at night, some shots had been fired in the neighbour- 
hood of the viaduct. This was a sign for hundreds 
of soldiers to begin shooting at random and arrest 
several persons. Several houses were perforated 
like sieves by bullets, and an entire street of twenty- 
eight houses, the Rue du Jardin, was reduced to 
ashes. No civilians were killed. 

It is evident from the "Report on the Violations 
of International Law in Belgium" that the Germans 
themselves admit that they were in the wrong with 
regard to the atrocities which were committed here. 
The following order of the day proves it: 

"Last night a shooting affray took place. There 
is no evidence that the inhabitants of the towns had 
any arms in their houses, nor is there evidence that 
the people took part in the shooting; on the con- 
trary, it seems that the soldiers were under the in- 
fluence of alcohol, and began to shoot in a senseless 
fear of a hostile attack. 

"The behaviour of the soldiers during the night, 
with very few exceptions, makes a scandalous impres- 
sion. 

"It is highly deplorable when officers or non-com- 
missioned officers set houses on fire without the per- 
mission or order of the commanding, or, as the case 
may be, the senior officer, or when by their attitude 



ALONG THE MEUSE TO NAMUR 149 

they encourage the rank and file to burn and plunder. 

"I require that everywhere a strict investigation 
shall take place into the Conduct of the soldiers with 
regard to the life and property of the civilian popu- 
lation. 

"I prohibit all shooting in the towns without the 
order of an officer. 

"The miserable behaviour of the men has been the 
cause that a non-commissioned officer and a private 
were seriously wounded by German ammunition. 
"The Commanding Officer, 
"Major Von Bassewitz." 

I was informed further that there had been no 
fighting for the possession of Huy. The citadel 
on which the German flag flew had not been put 
in a state of defence on account of its great age. 
The old bridge over the Meuse at Huy had been 
wrecked by the Belgians, but the Germans had sim- 
ply driven stout piles into the river, to support a 
floor which they put over the wrecked part, and so 
restored the traffic. 

During my visit I happened to make the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. Derricks, a brother of the lawyer who 
had been murdered so cruelly at Canne, and also 
a member of the Provincial States. The poor man 
was deeply moved when he heard the details about 
his brother's death. I made him very happy by 
taking a letter with me for his sister-in-law, who 
was now at Maastricht. 

At Andenne things seemed much worse than at 
Huy. I stopped there on my way to Namur, and 
had been prepared in Liege for the sad things I 



150 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

should hear. A proclamation posted in the last- 
named town ran as follows : — 



"August 22nd, 19 14. 
"After having protested their peaceful sentiments 
the inhabitants of Andenne made a treacherous at- 
tack on our troops. 

"The Commanding General burned down the 
whole city with my consent, shooting also about one 
hundred persons. 

"I acquaint the inhabitants of Liege of this, that 
they may understand what fate threatens them if 
they should assume a similar attitude. 

u The Commanding General-in-Chief, 

"Von Buelow." 

General von Buelow says here that he gave his 
consent to the shooting of about one hundred per- 
sons, but I can state with absolute certainty that 
there were about 400 victims. We must therefore 
assume that the other 300 were killed without his 
consent. 

Andenne, on the right bank of the Meuse, was 
a town of 8,000 inhabitants. When the Germans 
arrived there on the morning of August 19th they 
found the bridge connecting Andenne and Seilles 
wrecked. In the afternoon they began building a 
pontoon bridge, which was ready the next day. 
They were very much put out about the wrecking 
of the other bridge, by the Belgian soldiers, a cou- 
ple of hours before their arrival. Their exaspera- 
tion became still greater when they discovered after 
having finished the pontoon bridge, that the big tun- 



ALONG THE MEUSE TO NAMUR 151 

nel on the left bank of the Meuse had also been made 
useless by barricades and entanglements. 

By refusing to pay at cafes and shops the military 
already expressed their dissatisfaction. Then on 
Thursday, August 20th, about six in the evening, 
after a great many troops had crossed the river by 
the pontoon bridge, a shot was heard which seemed 
the sign for a terrible fusillade. Guns seemed to 
have been mounted at convenient places outside 
the town, for shells exploded right at its centre. 
The troops did no longer cross the bridge, but spread 
themselves in a disorderly manner all over the town, 
constantly shooting at the windows. Even mitrail- 
leuses were brought into action. Those of the 
inhabitants who could fly did so, but many were 
killed in the streets and others perished by bullets 
entering the houses through the windows. Many 
others were shot in the cellars, for the soldiers forced 
their way in, in order to loot the bottles of wine 
and to swallow their fill of liquor, with the result 
that very soon the whole garrison was a tipsy mob. 

It struck me always that as soon as something 
took place anywhere which might lead to disorder, 
the method adopted was as follows: first a fusillade 
in order to scare the inhabitants, secondly looting 
of numberless bottles of wine, and finally cruel, in- 
human murders, the ransacking and the wrecking. 

The game of shooting and looting went on all 
through the night of the 20th. Not a window or 
door remained whole even if the house was not 
burned down altogether. 

At four o'clock in the morning all the men, women, 
and children who had not yet been put to death 



152 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

were driven to the Place des Tilleuls, but on the 
way many men had their brains blown out. Amongst 
others, Dr. Camus, the septuagenarian burgo- 
master, was then wounded and afterwards received 
the finishing stroke by a hatchet. 

At the Place des Tilleuls fifty men were taken 
from the crowd at random, escorted to the Meuse, 
and shot. In the meantime other soldiers went on 
wrecking, firing, and looting. 

Andenne offered a dismal spectacle. The doors 
and windows of the houses that were not completely 
burned down had been kicked and beaten to pieces, 
and boards had been nailed before the holes. The 
inhabitants hung about disconsolately, and I could 
tell by their faces how they suffered, for every fam- 
ily in the town mourned the death of one dear to 
them. 

They all became excited whenever I mentioned the 
accusations brought against them. They asserted 
with the greatest emphasis that it was an absolute 
lie that the civilians had shot. "Even if they tor- 
ture me to death," said most of them, "Fll still con- 
tend that this accusation is untrue." 

The German officers, of course, held a different 
opinion; they alleged that the shooting by the 
civilians was even very general and purported to 
be a decided attack on the army. I asked them 
whether they had found any rifles or other arms at 
the "searches" of the houses — I expressed myself 
somewhat cautiously on purpose — for that ought to 
have been the case if such a great number of citizens 
had joined in the shooting. "No," they answered, 
"they were sly enough to see to it that we did not 



ALONG THE MEUSE TO NAMUR 153 

find these. They had been buried in time, of course. " 

The answer is, surely, not very convincing! 

The Germans had flung some more bridges across 
the river beyond Andenne, which had been used 
for the occupation of Namur chiefly, and lay idle 
now guarded by only one sentry. I left by the town- 
gate without any difficulties; the German soldiers 
jumped out of the way and stood to attention, as 
soon as they noticed the Netherland flag flying at 
the front of the motor. To the right and the left 
of the gateway they had written in gigantic letters : 
"Newspapers, please !" 

Namur was shelled on August 21st and the 23rd. 
Many houses were then already wrecked, many 
civilians killed. On the 23rd the Belgian army with- 
drew and only some of the forts were defended. 
This withdrawal of the Belgian army may have 
been a strategical necessity, but it is certain that 
the forts had not been defended unto the last. Five 
forts fell into the hands of the Germans without 
having suffered any damage. 

On the afternoon of the 23rd the hostile troops 
entered the town, and on that day the inhabitants 
had not to suffer, excepting from requisitions made. 
But the following evening it was suddenly on fire at 
various spots, and the soldiers began to shoot in all 
directions, making many victims. Before setting 
the houses on fire, with a liberal use of the lozenges 
mentioned already, the usurpers ransacked them and 
removed numerous pieces of valuable furniture. 
The Place d'Armes, the Place Leopold, the Rue 
St. Nicolas, Rue Rogier, and the Avenue de la 
Plante were almost entirely reduced to ashes. With 



154 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the town-hall many valuable pictures were destroyed. 
The day following the conflagration they left off 
shooting at last, but the looting went on for days 
more. 

When I drove into Namur, I found the town 
comparatively quiet; there was some traffic in the 
streets, and Belgian army surgeons and British 
nurses in their uniforms walked about freely. There 
were many wounded: the German wounded were all 
placed in the military hospital; the Belgians and the 
French had been taken to the Sisters of Mercy, the 
Institution Saint Louis, the High School for Girls, 
and the Sisters of Our Lady. 

When I was eating a little at one of the hotels 
near the railway station, I was offered the news- 
paper V Ami de I'Ordre, which had appeared again 
for the first time on that day, September 7th, under 
the Censorship of the German authorities. For 
curiosity's sake I translate here the first leaderette, 
published under the rule of the new masters : — 

"ENOUGH DESTROYED, ENOUGH DIS- 
TRESSED! 

"More than one hundred houses have been burned 
or wrecked at Namur, among them the town-hall, the 
house at the Namur Citadel, and the Institution for 
ophthalmology in the Place Leopold. In the Grand 
Marche and its neighbourhood about sixty have been 
destroyed by fire. If we add to this the damage done 
by the bombardment from Friday the 21st until Sun- 
day the 23rd August, and the wrecking of the bridges 
after the retreat of the army, we may estimate the 
losses at 10,000,000 francs. 



ALONG THE MEUSE TO NAMUR 155 

"Industry, trade, and agriculture exist no longer, 
labour is unemployed, and food is getting scarce, 
and over this dismal scene hovers the memory of 
numerous victims, of hundreds of prisoners of war 
or missing soldiers. During the bombardment of 
August 23rd one hundred persons were killed out- 
right, or succumbed to their wounds. There are in- 
numerable other wounded. This it is plain must 
have plunged the town into deep distress. 

"It mourns the lost liberty, the happiness, the 
peace, the brightness of her past prosperity which 
has vanished for a long season to come, it laments 
on account of the prisoners of war, the wounded, the 
dead. . . . And every morning the brilliant sun rises 
on the scene, the warm rays bathe town and country, 
both alike cruelly lashed by the frightful scourge. 

"Yesterday crowds of believers prayed for peace, 
for that blessing which is only valued when it is lost. 
Let us repeat our supplications twofold, let us in- 
crease our zeal. Lord ! O Lord ! listen to the voice 
of Thy people who pray to Thee! Be merciful! 
Give us back our peace!" 



CHAPTER XI 

FROM MAASTRICHT TO THE FRENCH 
FRONTIER 

The Destruction of Dinant 

Adventures incite to ever more risky undertakings, 
and we long constantly for more sensation. Such 
an experience prompted me to an arrangement with 
Mr. Tervooren, editor of Het Leven, to try to 
motor to the French frontier. 

We left Maastricht, in the early morning of Sep- 
tember 9th, with a smart fellow as chauffeur. Lou- 
vain we found tolerably quiet, although fearful scenes 
were witnessed in the search for corpses, which were 
found in the cellars of many houses. 

On that day I saw for the first time in Belgium 
German sailors and marines, and even an admiral 
and some officers. At that time the appearance of 
the naval men gave the newspapers much room 
for conjectures; it was found later that they were 
to be used in the attack on Antwerp, and after- 
wards had the task allotted to them of occupying the 
sea-board. 

I found sailors also in Brussels, but for the rest 
there was only a little military display there. In 
this town reigned a certain oppressive silence and 

156 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 157 

the cafes were not much frequented. The Brussels 
people did not hide their patriotic sentiments, and 
nearly every house displayed the Belgian flag, thanks 
chiefly to the strong attitude of Burgomaster Max. 
Outwardly Brussels had not suffered by the war; not 
a house was damaged and nobody had been killed 
yet. Nor was there lack of provisions, as was proved 
by the fact that at the "Metropole," one of the larg- 
est restaurants, I paid only seventy-five centimes 
(sevenpence-halfpenny) for bread, cold beef, and 
pickles. 

We met only a few Germans on the road from 
Brussels to Charleroi, and found no garrison except 
in the townlet Hal. Very little burning had taken 
place on this road, but so much the more plunder- 
ing and looting. A woman took us all over her house 
in the neighbourhood of Brussels, to show us the 
total wrecking. Small pieces of furniture were gen- 
erally taken away, but stoves, kitcheners, and cup- 
boards were smashed. She herself had had her face 
badly wounded, because she had hidden herself in 
the cellar when the Germans came near, and they 
had beaten her out of that with their rifle-butts. 
Many other women were treated in the same man- 
ner. 

When we came to Jumet, a suburb of Charleroi, 
and a prosperous place with flourishing factories, 
we found the whole town wrecked. . . . Nearly 
all the houses were burned immediately after the 
occupation by the Germans, and many inhabitants 
were killed, of course under the pretext that they 
had been shooting. 

After driving through this scene of misery we 



158 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

entered Charleroi, and exactly at that moment one 
of the springs of my motor broke in two, which made 
the car useless. Charleroi seemed worse damaged 
than Namur. According to an official statement is- 
sued at the time, one hundred and sixty-five houses 
had been burned, among them many on the fine 
Boulevard Audent, the Saint Joseph Institute, the 
convent of the Soeurs de Namur, and the adjacent 
ancient, miraculous little chapel of "Sainte Marie 
des Remparts," 

Probably more than one hundred civilians had 
been shot, whereas many perished in the cellars. 
The heads of the municipality and several priests 
had at first been taken as hostages. Bail of ten mil- 
lion francs was asked for their release, but after 
much haggling they consented to accept one and a 
half millions, which sum was forthcoming from the 
various local banks. 

Just as at Louvain and other towns, the Germans 
indulged in looting and plundering also at Charleroi; 
and probably this explains why here too the finest 
houses were destroyed. Moreover, many atrocious 
cases of rape occurred here as at Dinant, about 
which town more anon. At a cafe, where the pro- 
prietor unburdened his mind to me, with tears in 
his eyes, I read a statement in which they were 
impudent enough to write that they had passed a 
pleasant night in circumstances described in detail, 
whilst the father had been locked up. 

Charleroi was taken on August 22nd. On the 
evening of the 21st a small patrol had entered the 
town, and of these not a man escaped. But in the 
morning of the 22nd at seven o'clock a large force 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 159 

of Germans arrived and immediately began to burn 
and to shoot. 

On the day of my stay at Charleroi, at about 
seven o'clock in the evening, there was a good deal 
of bustle round about the station, many trains from 
Maubeuge arriving. One of these trains was en- 
tirely filled by officers of the garrison who had been 
taken prisoner. Another carried only wounded Ger- 
mans, lying on light stretchers, on which they were 
transported through the streets to the hospitals at 
Charleroi. Many had fearful wounds, and con- 
vulsively held their hands on the injured parts, while 
others lay still, the pallor of death on their face. 
Maubeuge must have cost the Germans enormous 
sacrifices, as for many of the wretched wounded no 
room could be found at Charleroi, and they had to 
be taken farther by train, to Namur or Brussels. 

German officials told that immediately after the 
surrender Maubeuge had been set on fire in various 
places, because civilians, etc. . . . The reader is 
by now able to complete the sentence. 

After I had collected some information in the 
town and my colleague of Het Leven had taken sev- 
eral snapshots, we thought that it was time to look 
for lodgings and to get our motor-car repaired. 

We found rooms, but were guarded during the 
night by soldiers, who walked up and down the land- 
ing, because there were officers also staying at the 
hotel. Their regular footfall prevented us from 
sleeping a wink, but with the help of some fibs and 
Netherland cigars we induced them to let us go out, 
and we went to a sort of smith in a kind of garage 
to repair the motor-car. We turned up our sleeves 



160 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and, assisted by the smith's technical directions, suc- 
ceeded in putting the broken spring together, using 
stout steel clamps and screws. 

Before leaving we went back to the hotel for 
breakfast. There — it was a first-class hotel — they 
gave us an apology for coffee, without milk or sugar, 
and two flimsy pieces of bread, as hard as wood and 
as black as shoe-polish. I was intensely hungry, and 
as nowhere at Charleroi anything else could be had, 
I did my best with the wooden bread and succeeded 
in washing it down with much chewing and jawing. 
But the sweet, hard stuff did not suit my digestion, 
and I felt ill already when at six o'clock we got into 
the motor-car and left for Dinant. 

We could not keep to the main road all the time, 
for it was forbidden by proclamation to go farther 
than nine miles and a half from the town, and we 
should have been stopped without fail. 

We first drove through the suburb Montigny- 
sur-Sambre, which shared the fate of Jumet, and was 
entirely destroyed by fire. After leaving the town 
we went in the direction of Chatelet, where we found 
an immense battle-field. Terrific fighting must have 
taken place here, for the number of buried was 
enormous. On a wide stretch of land we saw a great 
number of mounds, with crosses, and covered with 
quicklime. On the crosses the numbers are given 
of the brave who fell there. So I read, for ex- 
ample : — 

"Here rest 10 soldiers, French, I. Reg. 36. 
fell 22.8. R.I.P." 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 161 

"Here rest 23 soldiers, German, I.R. 78. and 
91. fell 22.8.14. R.LP." 

"Here rest 7 officers, German, I.R. fell 22.8.14. 
R.LP." 

"Here rest 140 soldiers, French, I.R. 36. fell 22.8. 
R.LP." 

There were very many similar ones, but I copied 
only these, because they lay just near the road; 
farther on there were numerous other white mounds 
with crosses. 

The villages Gougnies and Biesmes had been de- 
stroyed also; of the former not one house was left 
undamaged; but nothing happened to the townlet 
Mettet. Here we were forbidden to go on, as we 
were already more than nine miles and a half from 
Charleroi. This compelled us to leave the main 
road, and to proceed along byways which soon took 
us to the Ardennes, where our motor-car rushed 
along in zigzags. 

From time to time the tour became a break-neck 
affair, as the mountain roads were wet and muddy 
after much rain, and at corners we were often in 
great fear of being hurled down into the depth. 
It was a wonderfully fine district of green rock, al- 
though somewhat monotonous after a time, as it 
seemed that we were simply moving in a circle, which 
impression was strengthened by the fact that fre- 
quently we passed through tunnels and viaducts 
which were very alike to one another. 

I felt very sick, for the sweet rye-bread which I 
had forced down my throat in the morning did not 



162 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

agree with me at all. At last I felt so ill that I 
was obliged to lie down on the floor of the car, and 
it took my colleague all his time to convince me that 
he did not think that my last hour had struck. 

In the end and in despair I accepted an aspirin 
tablet which he had pressed on me a hundred times, 
and although I do not know whether it was owing 
to that, or in spite of it, it was a fact that I felt some- 
what better. 

After touring quite a long while through this laby- 
rinth, we got at last back to the main road from 
Namur to Dinant, near Anhec. Here immediately 
we saw proofs of war, drawn from widespread de- 
struction. The railway bridge across the Meuse 
near Houx, so picturesquely situated at the foot of a 
high rock, had been blown up. 

Bouvigne, a hamlet near Dinant, had suffered fear- 
fully from the bombardment of that town. Trees 
were splintered by the shells, the church was nearly 
a, total wreck from the same cause, and two houses 
by the road had been riddled by bullets into a sieve, 
and also damaged by shells. On the whole scene of 
war I have not seen one house carrying so many 
bullets in it; their holes made the doors look like 
wire-netting. In these houses the French had barri- 
caded themselves, brought mitrailleuses to them, and 
defended them until the last. None of those heroes 
left them alive. My colleague took many snapshots 
of this remarkable spot, while I collected bullets, 
fragments of shell, and similar mementos of this war- 
field. 

In order to give the reader some idea of the fear- 
ful things that happened at Dinant, I insert here 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 163 

some quotations from the reports drawn up by the 
Belgian Inquiry Committee about the Violations of 
International Law, of which I can affirm the truth 
word for word, because they are identical with the 
information that I got myself at Dinant. 

"The destruction took place from August 21st to 
the 25th. 

"On August 15th a fierce fight took place between 
the French troops on the left bank of the Meuse and 
the Germans who approached from the east. The 
Germans were defeated, put to flight, and chased by 
the French, who crossed the river. On that day the 
town was not damaged much. Some houses were 
destroyed by German howitzers, which were un- 
doubtedly aimed at the French regiments on the left 
bank. One Red Cross helper who lived at Dinant 
was killed by a German bullet when he was taking 
up one of the wounded. 

"The next day all remained quiet, the French keep- 
ing the surrounding places occupied; not one fight 
took place between the two armies and nothing hap- 
pened which might be looked upon as a hostile ac- 
tion by the populations, and there were no German 
troops near Dinant. 

"At about nine o'clock of Friday evening, August 
2 1 st, German soldiers arriving by rail from Ciney 
marched into the town by the Rue Saint Jacques. 
They began to shoot into the windows without the 
slightest provocation, killed a workman who was on 
his way home, wounded another inhabitant and com- 
pelled him to call out: 'Long live the Kaiser.' A 
third they wounded in the abdomen with thrusts of 
their bayonets. They burst into the cafes, requisi- 
tioned all spirits, got tipsy on them, and left after 



164 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

setting several houses on fire and knocking to pieces 
the doors and windows of others. 

"The inhabitants, frightened and perplexed, hid 
themselves in the houses. 

"On Sunday, August 23rd, at half-past six in the 
morning, the soldiers of the 108th regiment of the 
line drove the worshippers out of the Premonstraten- 
sian Church, separated the men from the women, 
and shot about fifty of the former through the head. 
Between seven and nine o'clock there were house-to- 
house looting and burning by the soldiers, who chased 
the inhabitants into the street. Those who tried to 
escape were shot off-hand. 

"At about nine o'clock the soldiers drove all who 
had been found in the houses in front of them by 
means of blows from their rifle-butts. They crowded 
them together in the Place d'Armes, where they kept 
them until six o'clock in the evening. Their guards 
amused themselves by telling the men repeatedly that 
they would soon be shot. 

"At six o'clock a captain separated the men from 
the women and children. The women were placed 
behind a line of infantry. The men had to stand 
alongside a wall; those in the first row were ordered 
to sit on their haunches, the others to remain stand- 
ing behind them. A platoon took a stand straight 
opposite the group. The women prayed in vain for 
mercy for their husbands, their sons, and their broth- 
ers; the officer gave the order to fire. He had not 
made the slightest investigation, pronounced no sen- 
tence of any sort. 

"A score of these men were merely wounded and 
fell among the dead. For greater certainty the sol- 
diers fired once more into the mass. A few got off 
scot-free in spite of the double fusillade. For over 
two hours they pretended to be dead, remained 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 165 

among the corpses without budging, and when it was 
dark were able to fly to the mountains. Eighty-four 
victims remained behind and were buried in a garden 
in the neighbourhood. 

"There were other murders on that same 23rd of 
August. 

"Soldiers discovered inhabitants of the suburb 
Saint Pierre in the cellars of a brewery, and killed 
them on the spot. 

"On the previous day many workmen of the silk 
factory Kimmer and their wives and children had 
found a shelter in the cellars of the building, with 
some neighbours and relatives of their employer. At 
six o'clock in the evening the unfortunate people 
made up their mind to leave then- hiding-place and 
went into the street, headed by a white flag. They 
were immediately seized by the soldiers and roughly 
ill-treated. All the men were shot, among them Mr. 
Kimmer, Consul of Argentina. 

"Nearly all the men of the suburb Leffe were mas- 
sacred en masse. In another quarter twelve citizens 
were murdered in a cellar. In the Rue en lie a 
paralytic was shot in his bath-chair, and in the Rue 
d'Enfer a boy, fourteen years old, was struck down 
by a soldier. 

"The railway viaduct of the suburb Neffe became 
the scene of a bloody massacre. An old woman and 
all her children were shot in a cellar. A man sixty- 
five years old, his wife, a son and a daughter were 
placed against a wall and shot through the head. 
Other inhabitants of Neffe were placed in a boat, 
taken to the Rocher Bayard, and shot there ; among 
them were a woman eighty-three years old and her 
husband. 

"A number of men and women had been locked in 
the yard of the prison. ... At six o'clock in the 



166 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

evening a mitrailleuse was placed on the mountain 
and fired at them, an old woman and three others 
being killed. 

"Whilst some soldiers committed these murders, 
others looted and wrecked the houses, smashed the 
safes or blew them up with dynamite. They forced 
their way into the Banque Centrale de la Meuse, 
seized the manager, Mr. Xavier Wasseige, and 
called upon him to open the safe. As he refused to 
do so, they tried to force it open, but in vain. There- 
upon they took Mr. Wasseige and his two eldest 
sons to the Place d'Armes, where they and 120 of 
their fellow-citizens were shot by means of a mitrail- 
leuse. The youngest three children of Mr. Was- 
seige were held by soldiers and forced to attend the 
slaughter of their father and brothers. We were 
also informed that one of the young Wasseiges lay 
dying for an hour and nobody dared to come to his 
assistance. 

"After the soldiers had performed their duty as 
vandals and bandits they set the houses on fire. Soon 
the whole town was one immense pool of fire. 

"All the women and children had been taken to 
a convent, where they were kept imprisoned for four 
days, without hearing of the fate of their beloved 
ones. They themselves expected to be shot in their 
turn. Round about them the burning of the town 
went on. 

"The first day the religious were allowed to give 
them some food, although not sufficient. Soon they 
had nothing to eat but carrots and unripe fruit. 

"The inquiry also brought to light that the Ger- 
man soldiers on the right bank, who were exposed to 
the fire of the French, hid themselves here and there 
behind civilians, women and children. 

"In short the town of Dinant is destroyed. Of 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 167 

1,400 houses, 200 only remained standing. The fac- 
tories, where the labouring population got their 
bread and butter, were wrecked systematically. Many 
inhabitants were sent to Germany, where they are 
still kept as prisoners. The majority of the others 
are scattered all over Belgium. Those who stayed 
in the towns were starved. 

"The committee has a list of the victims. It con- 
tains 700 names, and is not complete. Among those 
killed are seventy-three women and thirty-nine chil- 
dren between six months and fifteen years old. 

"Dinant had 7,600 inhabitants, of whom ten per 
cent, were put to death; not a family exists which 
has not to mourn the death of some victims; many 
families have been exterminated completely." 

When we entered the town in our motor-car, 
those of the unfortunate population who had escaped 
from the murderous massacre had already left the 
town. Between the ruins and the deserted French 
Red Cross cars we drove to the pontoon bridge 
which the Germans had flung across the river by the 
side of the Meuse bridge, which had been blown up. 
Here we were stopped by German soldiers who 
guarded the pontoon bridge. In a cafe we came 
across a few of the citizens who had remained. 
These unfortunate people had no home, no money, 
and no food, lacked the wherewithal to go farther 
away, and now depended on the charity of the mur- 
derers of their relatives. Twice a day they were 
allowed to call at one of the German stores for a 
piece of bread, in exchange for a ticket which they 
might get at the commander's office. The Germans, 



168 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

upholders of morality and "Kultur," saw to it that 
their victims did not overeat themselves. 

Our passport had to be stamped by this same 
commander, and my colleague had to ask him for 
a permit to take photographs. The commander 
would not hear of this, but finally agreed, after my 
colleague had snapshotted him and his staff in front 
of the office. Our passport was marked: i. Land- 
sturm Infantry Battalion, Dresden." 

Dinant offered a terrible sight; it no longer ex- 
isted. On foot, of course, we walked along the 
place where a large shop once stood, but one could 
not even distinguish where the road had been. Not 
one street was left, and the few houses that were 
saved are not in the centre of the town. On a 
slope on the left bank of the Meuse there had been 
two large monasteries, which had been turned into 
hospitals. They had been wrecked completely by 
gun-fire, and as if in bitter mockery at the cruel 
fate, the Red Cross flags flew there still undamaged. 

In the centre of the town everything, including 
the large buildings, had been levelled with the 
ground. This was the case with the principal church 
"de Notre Dame," the college of the same name, 
the "Belle Vue," the monasteries, etc., of the "Freres 
et Soeurs de Notre Dame," the "Saint Nicolas" and 
"Saint Pierre" churches, and three large factories, 
"Oudin," "Le Merinos," and "La Dinant," the 
"Banque Centrale de la Meuse," the town-hall, the 
ancient "Palace of the Prince-Bishops," and all its 
archives, the magnificent post-and-telegraph office, 
the large hotels "de la Tete d'Or," "des Postes," 
"des Ardennes," "Moderne," "Terminus," the hotels 



MAASTRICHT TO FRENCH FRONTIER 169 

"de la Citadelle," "la Paix," "la Gare," etc., etc., 
the "Institut Hydrotherapique," all houses of the 
"Bon Secours" Congregation, etc. 

The finest view of Dinant was from the beautiful 
bridge affording a passage across the Meuse with 
the "Notre Dame" in the background. This church 
was built just in front of a steep rock, on top of 
which stood the citadel of Dinant. 

Now the bridge is blown up, the greater part of 
the church destroyed by the Germans, and, had na- 
ture not been more powerful than their brutal, 
clumsy violence, they would have pulled down that 
rock too. But it is still there, the solitary remnant of 
the famous beauty of Dinant. 

My companion wanted to take a snapshot of this 
point, but in order to enliven the scene somewhat, 
he requested a few soldiers to stand in the square 
in front of the church. Each had a couple of cham- 
pagne bottles hanging on his stomach, and refused 
absolutely to accede to my colleague's request to 
remove them. They insisted upon being snapshotted 
with those bottles hanging on their bodies ! So my 
companion took this snapshot of "Kultur" in that 
condition, houses burned down, a church destroyed, 
and in front of these the grinning and coarse villains, 
puffing out their bodies, proud of their empty bot- 
tles. . . . 



CHAPTER XII 

ON THE BATTLE-FIELDS 

As often as I went on tour to collect news on the 
scene of war, I got dozens of messages and letters, 
which alarmed people sent to the editor of De Tijd, 
with the request that they should be handed to me 
for further transmission to relatives. I took hun- 
dreds of them to and from Louvain. 

On Monday, September 14th, I took with me a 
larger number than ever to Louvain. 

I observed then already that much poverty pre- 
vailed, for in many places I noticed people whose ap- 
pearance did not suggest that they were accustomed 
to that sort of work, creeping quietly in and out of 
hedges, carrying bags in which they put the potatoes 
picked up in the fields. Naturally they started and 
looked alarmed, when, suddenly, I passed on my 
bicycle. 

Round about Louvain everything was prepared for 
defensive purposes, artillery being hidden under 
straw-roofs, only a few yards away from the farm- 
houses, and the sentries were very alert. I never 
saw them before I was quite near; then they jumped 
suddenly from behind a tree, summoning me to stop 
by lowering their rifle. In the meadows were a good 
many newly cut trenches. 

170 



ON THE BATTLE-FIELDS 171 

Some soldiers were rather friendly when I re- 
vealed myself as a Netherland reporter; they in- 
formed me with serious faces that in Germany two 
million volunteers were drilling; that in each garri- 
son-town the majority of the men were left behind 
as reserves ; that by and by they were going to level 
Antwerp to the ground, if these Belgians would not 
keep quiet; that after all Belgium proved a bigger 
job than they had bargained for; that Amsterdam 
and Rotterdam had been shelled and Flushing taken 
by the British; that Germany had now sent a great 
number of troops into The Netherlands to protect 
her against Britain, because The Netherlands her- 
self had no army at all; and so on and so on. 

One of the soldiers took me to the spot where two 
days before the Belgians had blown up the railway 
which had just now been repaired by the German 
engineers. According to his story eighty troopers 
had succeeded in surprising a guard of twelve and in 
pushing on to the railway. 

Near Corbeek-Loo a strong Belgian force had 
been able even to reach the main road to Louvain, 
and there also destroyed the railway, after which 
they retreated before the advancing Germans. 

These minor actions formed part of the sortie by 
the Belgians from Antwerp. One division marched 
towards Louvain and occupied Aerschot on Thursday 
evening, September ioth. On Friday they ad- 
vanced farther in the direction of Wijgmaal-Rotse- 
lair-Corbeek-Loo, with continuous hard fighting. On 
Saturday the fights were fiercest round about these 
places, and ended in the evening in a retreat of the 
Belgians, who made the enemy pay as heavily as 



172 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

possible for their victory, although they themselves 
had to leave behind a good many victims. 

Considerations of space forbid me to relate many 
of the heroic deeds performed on this occasion, but 
an exception may be made of the following : — 

When I arrived in Louvain I heard of a young 
Fleming who was then being nursed in a hospital 
established by the Norbertine Fathers, and had been 
serving at two pieces of ordnance near Corbeek- 
Loo. As the army was forced to retreat in the eve- 
ning his comrades were compelled to abandon the 
two guns, but he had to stay, being wounded in the 
leg by a grape shot. The Germans made him pris- 
oner, and tied him to a tree. By an immense effort 
he succeeded in tearing himself loose, and dragged 
himself towards a farm-house. At a short distance 
from this goal he was stopped, however, by a Ger- 
man soldier. The Fleming, putting forth all his re- 
maining strength, gave the other such a tremendous 
blow in the face with his rifle-butt that he fell down 
dead. Subsequently this boy reached the farm-house, 
where he was charitably received. Later on he was 
fetched away by the Sisters from Boven-Loo, and 
finally from that institution by the Norbertine 
Fathers. 

The Belgians left also a considerable number of 
dead and wounded at Wijgmaal and Rotselair. On 
Tuesday, September 15th, I visited the battle-fields 
in that neighbourhood with father Coppens, a 
Netherland Norbertine, born at Lieshout. The 
wounds of the soldiers lying there were in a most 
terrible condition, because the Germans forbade 
the removal of the Belgian wounded before all the 



ON THE BATTLE-FIELDS 173 

German dead had been buried. In my opinion not 
only a proof of barbarity, but also an admission that 
the Germans themselves must have suffered great 
losses. 

The Wijgmaal battle-field was after all the least 
horrible. About ten houses seemed to have been 
set on fire on purpose; the rest had suffered badly 
from the bombardment. All the inhabitants had 
fled as soon as the fighting began. The wounded 
Belgians had been placed in the large dancing-room 
of a cafe, where father Coppens brought them a 
large hamper full of eatables and drinkables, and 
whence also he had them transported to Louvain. 
The food was gratefully accepted, but they were 
still more eager to get hold of the mugs, as they were 
very thirsty in consequence of the high temperature 
caused by the inflamed wounds; often we had to pre- 
vent them forcibly from drinking too much. 

We passed a dead field-officer who still laid hold 
of a piece of a flag. When I read that sort of thing 
in a book, I thought: "how pretty and romantic," 
but never believed that this would actually happen 
in war-time. I saw the reality now, and, deeply 
touched, bared my head, saluting that dead hero. 
From papers we found on him we saw that his name 
was Van Gesthel; like most Belgians, he had been 
killed by shell. 

I went on with Father Coppens and found about 
one hundred wounded, of whom only a few had been 
taken to the houses. Most of them crept away 
frightened, but when we told them that we were 
Netherlanders from Louvain, who came to bring 
them food and drink, and to take them away to be 



174 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

nursed, they got hold of our coats and refused to let 
us go. 

They drank deep, in long draughts, with trembling 
lips, and beseeched us not to leave them again: 
"Oh, gentlemen, then we shall die!" We swore 
that we should come back, and that later on carriages 
would arrive from Louvain to take them to some 
convent or hospital; and, trusting us, they resigned 
themselves in the end. 

Goats, pigs, cows, and other cattle roamed freely 
through the village-street, looking for food and lick- 
ing the faces of the dead. 

We entered a stable whence we thought that a 
sound came. We saw, however, nothing but a heap 
of straw, and a pig which ran up against us near the 
door. Father Coppens chased it away with a: 

"Get you gone, you brute!" 

And all at once the straw began to move, a head 
popped out, and a weak voice exclaimed : 

"Ah well, be you a Fleming?" 

The poor fellow had hidden himself, being afraid 
that we were Germans ; but when he heard the "Get 
you gone, you brute!" he ventured to show him- 
self. 

"Certainly, my lad," said Father Coppens — "cer- 
tainly we are Flemings. What is the matter with 
you?" 

We removed the rest of the straw, undressed him 
partially, and on both his legs the most hideous 
wounds became visible. Septic process had worsened 
his condition to such an extent, that the unfortunate 
boy had only a short time to live. I moved away 



ON THE BATTLE-FIELDS 175 

... he confessed to Father Coppens, who gave him 
the viaticum, which he carried with him. 

Later on people from Louvain came with carts, 
which we had ordered before leaving. Thirteen of 
these carried the wounded away, whilst a German 
patrol went all over the village, setting everything 
on fire. 

Father Coppens and I beseeched the German com- 
manding officer to spare the houses of some people, 
large families, who came for shelter to the father's 
convent. And at length, after long supplications, 
we secured exemption for a few houses, inhabited 
by people who could not have done anything in a 
village which had been completely evacuated by the 
population, at the beginning of the fight. 

In the Hospital Leo XIII, that eager Nether- 
lander, Professor Noyons, did all he could to save 
as many as could be saved of the wretched Belgian 
wounded; but as rain and cold had done so much 
harm to the wounds, amputation of the injured limbs 
was as a rule the only remedy left. 

Never thinking of rest he went on day and night, 
taking away the poor fellows' arms and legs, and all 
this by the miserable light of some candles. Gas 
and electricity were not to be had, the works being 
idle after the destruction of the town. . . . 



CHAPTER XIII 

ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 

Although at first I had a different plan, I decided 
on Saturday, September 26th, to go first to Riempst 
— a little walk of three hours each way — as I had 
read a report in certain papers quoted from the 
Handelsblad van Antwerpen that the church of 
Riempst had been burned and the vicars of that par- 
ish and of Sichem had been made prisoners. 

Arrived at Riempst I found the pretty village 
church in its full glory and the vicar engaged in per- 
forming his religious functions; the vicar of Sichem 
was also still at home. The only part of the report 
that was true was that various burgomasters from 
the environs had been sent to Tongres and had not 
returned since. The burgomaster of Riempst, with 
whom I had been imprisoned already once, was being 
searched for by the Germans everywhere, but could 
not be found. In several places I heard also that 
the Belgians were lying in the woods round about, 
and that something was being prepared at Riempst; 
but no one knew what. So I decided to go and in- 
quire. 

The road was quite deserted, for the people, who 
live in great fear, do not venture out. 

As far as Bilsen everything seemed equally de- 
176 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 177 

serted, but quite near the town a couple of German 
soldiers suddenly came to me from behind a house, 
and ordered me to stop. They took me with them to 
the guard, which was established in the aforemen- 
tioned house. 

There it appeared that my papers were in good 
order, but at the same time I was informed that I 
was to be taken to the commanding officer at the 
station and could not be allowed to leave Bilsen 
for the present. I was escorted through the town- 
let, which appeared to be entirely deserted; but now 
and then somebody came to his front-door to watch 
the latest victim of the Germans being led past. ^ At 
the station I was pushed without much courtesy into 
a keep where six other civilians sat, who had been 
picked up as being at large, and whose faces were 
now covered with a cold perspiration from fear, 
because they were firmly convinced that by and by 
they would be shot. 

Three soldiers stood before the open door and 
amused themselves by provoking these people in the 
most inhuman manner, by abusing them and telling 
them that later on they would be hanged or shot. 
The poor fellows shivered and their teeth clattered. 
I, the newly arrived "swine," was treated in much 
the same way, but I reduced the insolent blusterers 
into the quietest people of the world by warning 
them that by and by I would ask the commanding 
officer whether his soldiers had the right to call a 
Netherlander a "swine." That put some heart into 
my fellow-victims, and I urged them that they would 
do best by replying calmly to any questions which 
the commanding officer might put to them. They 



178 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

actually became more composed, and told me the 
following : 

The Germans had evacuated Bilsen some days 
ago, probably after being informed that a strong 
force of Belgians was coming on. As a matter of 
fact, only eleven Belgian soldiers had entered the 
townlet. These had pulled down the German flag 
from the town-hall and replaced it by the Belgian. 
The station and the railway were then closed to 
the public for a couple of hours, and in that time they 
pulled up the rails in two places. On Friday evening 
the Germans returned in great numbers by train 
from Tongres, and the train derailed on one of 
those places ; but no lives were lost, as it went very 
slowly. 

The Germans had then taken it into their heads 
that the Belgians occupied Bilsen and the station, 
and began a terrific fire at the station and the sur- 
sounding houses, although there was not a single 
Belgian soldier in the whole town. When they had 
satisfied themselves that this was the case, they 
stopped firing, and were furious on account of the 
derailing and the mistake they had made. They then 
started a wild hunt for the men, and set about ten 
houses on fire, as also the signalman's cottage, be- 
cause he had not warned them of the danger by wav- 
ing his red flag. 

They made no allowance for the fact that they 
themselves had relieved all railway officials of their 
functions until later notification. The signalman 
was made a prisoner, but released subsequently. 

As soon as they began to chase the men, the greater 
part of the inhabitants fled in dire fear, most of 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 179 

them towards the Campine. In the fields and the 
shrubberies the Germans must have killed a good 
many of the male fugitives, and made the others 
prisoners. Among the latter were my six fellow- 
victims. 

That same Friday evening the women and chil- 
dren living in the Rue de la Station were told to leave 
their houses as the whole street was to be burned 
down. Everybody fled, but the design was not exe- 
cuted. The burgomaster and his son were taken 
prisoners, and brought to Tongres; later on the 
son was released; the Very Reverend the Dean was 
also arrested. 

The latter himself told me that he was released 
in order to instruct the vicars in the eighteen parish- 
ers of his deanery that they should inform their 
parishioners that the whole village would be burned 
and the inhabitants killed if the railway-line should 
be broken up, no matter whether it were done by Bel- 
gian soldiers or others. 

After I had been incarcerated for about two hours 
I was taken to the commanding officer, Major Krit- 
tel, or rather to one of his subordinates, Captain 
Spuer, who was having a violent altercation with 
his chief. The captain appeared to insist with great 
force that the whole place should be burned down 
and all the prisoners shot. But the major seemed 
to be a tolerably reasonable man, tried to soothe the 
captain, and at last put down his foot, saying that 
he had had enough. The captain, a rude, fat fellow, 
sat down at a desk and bellowed at me : 

"Here, swine!" 

I did not budge. 



180 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"Here, swine!" 

"I am a Netherlander." 

"Netherlander? Doesn't matter. Have you got 
papers? All right. You shan't have those back." 

"Then I'll lodge a complaint with the Imperial 
Governor of Liege, who gave me the papers." 

"Swine!" 

Now the major jumped up and shouted at his 
subordinate that he had to treat a Netherlander as 
he ought to be treated. 

The major, sitting at another desk, took my 
further examination upon himself, apologising for 
the "noisy" conduct of his subordinate, who had got 
somewhat over-excited in consequence of the circum- 
stances. He found my papers in perfect order, and 
told me in civil tones that I should get back my liberty 
which I had lost in consequence of a misunderstand- 
ing, but that for the present I was not allowed to 
leave Bilsen, as I should run the greatest risk of 
being shot by German or Belgian patrols, who were 
hidden along the road. He asked me to call again 
the next morning. 

I availed myself of his benevolent mood and told 
him that my fellow-prisoners were treated very un- 
kindly by his soldiers, and these people had lost 
their composure entirely in consequence. A calm 
examination, I told him, undoubtedly would give 
him also the conviction that these people had only 
fled into the fields because they were afraid, but not 
with any criminal intent. He promised me to con- 
duct the examination himself, and to be as kind as 
possible. The next morning I heard that they had 
all been released. 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 181 

I now tried to get something to eat in the town at 

an hotel. 

"Well, what have you got for me to eat.' ^ 

"To eat, sir— to eat? A bit of bacon . . . that s 

alL " * \ 

"Well, that's all right; and what am 1 going to 

have with it, bread, potatoes, or . . . ' # ^ 

"Bread, potatoes? Nothing. We have nothing 

I went to various other places, but there I could 

not even get a bit of bacon. So I made up my mind 

to starve for the present, and to make inquiries here 

and there about families whose acquaintances or 

friends had asked me to do so through the editor of 

Be Tijd. 

Afterwards I sauntered through the very quiet 
little town, until I suddenly saw something quite 
uncommon, namely two civilians who, like myself, 
were walking about. When I came near, one of 
them recited a rhyme : 

"Ah, there comes Mister Tijd, and he 
Lost like ourselves his liberty!" 

I had not the faintest idea who they were, but 
then they introduced themselves as van Wersch and 
Dasoul, both living at the time at Hasselt. The 
first had been at Maastricht a couple of days ago 
and had seen me there. He told me that that 
morning he had been "hooked" and his companion 
only the evening before. He had come to Bilsen 
on a bicycle, and got such a blow on his back from 
the butt of a German rifle that the butt was cracked 
in two although his back was not injured. 



182 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

He had been uneasy because he experienced no 
disagreeable consequences of that blow, and had 
therefore consulted the doctor at Bilsen, who thought 
that only his excited nerves had enabled him to with- 
stand such a blow. Both had been locked up a cou- 
ple of hours and their bicycles had been taken away, 
as also their papers. Mr. van Wersch, however, 
had an acquaintance at Bilsen with whom he and his 
companion found lodgings, and whither he was good 
enough to take me as well. 

After a bed had been promised me, my first re- 
quest was for something to eat, for I had not en- 
joyed anything as yet. But there was nothing left, 
absolutely nothing. I scratched my head, and rubbed 
my empty stomach, when suddenly I heard a fowl 
cackling outside. Negotiations about it were soon 
finished; my companion was to kill the fowl, where- 
as I was to call on Major Krittel and tell him that 
I liked my enforced stay in Bilsen very much, but 
that he ought to see now that I got something to 
eat. 

I returned with two large round "brown Georges" 
— soldiers' loaves. 

Never did I enjoy a meal so much; but not so 
the kind people who had received us so friendly; 
they could not eat. The terror which reigned among 
the population in those days was indescribable. One 
must have seen it and gone through it with them, to 
realise it. They really feared that at any moment 
the Germans would drive the population out of the 
houses and set the town on fire. 

Men and women in the prime of life sat on their 
chairs, gazing vacantly at nothing, lacking in the 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 183 

most literal sense of the word the strength to stand 
or to walk. When at about six o'clock in the evening 
the click-clack of rifle-fire was heard — for a Belgian 
patrol seemed to have come near the town, — my 
hostess and her daughter pressed a couple of papers 
against their breast, full of fear, ready to fly, but 
unable to walk. 

That same afternoon also I made the acquaintance 
of the editor of a local weekly, De Bilsenaar, which 
was not allowed to appear during the occupation 
of the place by the Germans. He and others had a 
great many things to tell me. 

Not half of the requisitioned meat was used by 
the Germans, and the rest was simply left to rot, 
whilst the starving people were not allowed to touch 
it. Two pigs and a cow were shot in a meadow, but 
no part of these animals had been used, the order to 
bury them being given when the smell became un- 
endurable. In some places the Germans indulged 
in such unspeakably filthy acts, that it is impossible 
to mention details. 

When the Germans entered Bilsen for the first 
time, four persons were shot in front of the town- 
hall; fifteen holes were still to be seen in the wall. 
Amongst these four was also the brother-in-law 
of the editor of the Bihenaar. He was dragged 
out of his house, accused of having shot, although 
he and his wife and children were at that moment 
saying the rosary. His wife had got up that day 
for the first time after her confinement. 

The unhappy man asserted in a loud voice that 
he was innocent, but got the answer that he would 
have to prove that later on. But he never had a 



184 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

chance of doing that. Arriving at the market-place, 
he and three others were simply placed against the 
wall and shot. He could not even have spiritual 
assistance. 

Frequently Protestant services were held in the 
market-place, conducted by a parson, and the in- 
variable beginning and end of that parson's allocu- 
tion was: "There is one God; there must also be 
one Kaiser." 

A good many lads had been able to escape from 
Bilsen and the environs to Antwerp; in the aggre- 
gate, 500 from this district, and more went every 
day. They were driven to the Belgian army by all 
they had seen and experienced. Often one heard 
women and girls say: "Oh, if I were a man, if I 
were a boy, I should be in the army to-morrow !" 

I was sitting comfortably in the home circle of the 
editor of De Bilsenaar, with father, mother, and 
daughter. They had one son of eighteen, who was 
at the Junior Seminary at Hasselt, and only the first 
Sunday in August he had left for Heerenth in order 
to offer himself as a missionary aspirant. The next 
Wednesday the would-be missionary, an only son, 
enlisted as a volunteer in the Belgian army. . . . He 
was already the sixteenth of his form of twenty- 
three boys at the college at Hasselt. 

The father got up and went to a small cupboard 
from which he took some papers, and his eyes, and 
those of his wife and daughter, became moist at 
once; letters from their only boy, written on the bat- 
tle-field! He read them out with a broken voice, 
frequently interrupted by sobs. I said nothing, could 
not utter a word. 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 185 

The boy also had been obliged to retire into 
France, had been transported from Rheims to Havre, 
and from there, across the sea, back to Belgium. 
"Five times already, my dear parents, I have been 
in the fight; I have asked them not to let me wait 
long for the sixth. Oh, you cannot imagine how 
glorious it is to be allowed to fight for my country ! 
Have confidence in the future, dear parents, and 
say a paternoster for me and my comrades and also 
one for our Fatherland." 

Well, I could not keep calm when I heard such 
things read by a father from a letter of his only 
son on the battle-field; that is impossible. 

The next morning was Sunday, and the bells sum- 
moned the people to church. But nobody went, no- 
body dared to appear in the street, although prayer- 
book and rosary are always in everybody's hands 
during these days. I had decided to go to the sec- 
ond Mass, but as nobody had come to the first, there 
was no second. The Dean himself said that the 
people were quite right not to come to church. The 
previous Sunday the Germans, who had entered 
Lanaeken suddenly, had posted themselves in front 
of the church, where the believers attended Holy 
Mass, and ordered the women and children to leave 
the church, but the men to stay. When all the 
women and children had left, the Germans entered 
the building and . . . found not a single man, for 
all had left quickly by the back door. A veritable 
battue was held in the whole district for lads and 
young man, who were all taken away as prisoners 
by the Germans, because during the last few days 



186 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

great numbers had escaped to the north and enlisted 
as volunteers in the army. 

I went to the commander's office, and on the way 
copied the following Proclamation : — 

"PROCLAMATION 

"Private motor-cars, motor-bicycles, and bicycles 
are only allowed to move about in the districts occu- 
pied by the German army if driven by German sol- 
diers, or the chauffeur possesses a licence. These li- 
cences are only issued by the local commanders, and 
only in urgent cases. The motor-cars, motor-bicycles, 
and bicycles will be seized if this rule is infringed. 
Anyone who tries to push through the German out- 
posts shall be shot at, as also anyone who approaches 
them in such a manner that he seems to be a spy. 

"Should telegraph- or telephone-wires be cut in 
the neighbourhood of towns and villages, these 
places will be sentenced to pay a war-contribution, 
whether the inhabitants are guilty or not. 

"The Governor-General of Belgium. 

"Baron Von der Goltz, 

"Field-Marshal." 

At the station Major Krittel was engaged in ex- 
amining a civilian and his wife. The man had been 
found in a field ; both shook from nervous excitement 
and wept profusely. The major spoke calmly and 
encouragingly, and after a short examination both 
got their liberty. Major Krittel was also very 
kind to me again, but asked emphatically whether 
I knew that writing false news exposed me to the 
danger of capital punishment. I answered that I 
was firmly convinced of that. He then gave me 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 187 

another proclamation to read in which this was men- 
tioned, and I asked and got permission to put the 
document in my pocket. It runs as follows : — 

"Tongres. 
"24.9.1914, 

"PROCLAMATION 

"Several cases which occurred in the Province of 
Limburg oblige me to acquaint the inhabitants of a 
number of regulations: 

"According to Clause 58, Section 1, of the Military 
Penal Code, sentence of capital punishment for 
treason will be pronounced against those who, in- 
tending to assist an enemy army, or to injure the 
German army : 

"1. Commit a punishable offence mentioned in 
Clause 90 of the German Penal Code. 

"2. Injure or make useless roads or telegraphic 
instruments. 

"3. Serve the enemy as guides in a military under- 
taking against the German allied forces, or mislead 
the latter when serving them as guides. 

"4. Who in whatever way in order to harass or 
mislead the German forces make military or other 
signals, urge to flee, or prevent the reunion of strag- 
gling soldiers. 

"5. Who undertake to enter into verbal or writ- 
ten communication with persons in the army or the 
fleet, of the enemy country at war with Germany, 
about matters relating to the war itself. 

"6. Who distribute in the German army hostile 
incitements or communications. 

"7. Who neglect necessary precautions which 
ought to be taken on behalf of the army. 



188 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"8. Liberate prisoners of war. 

"According to Clause 90 of the German Penal 
Code, sentence of penal servitude for life will be 
pronounced against those : 

"1. Who surrender to the enemy, either German 
troops or fortified bulwarks, trenches or fortified 
places, or defences, as also parts or belongings of 
the German army. 

"2. Who surrender to the enemy of the German 
forces defensive works, ships or transports of the 
ffeet, public funds, stocks of arms, munitions, or other 
war material, as also bridges, railways, telegraphs, 
or other means of communication; or who destroy 
them or make them useless on behalf of the enemy. 

"3. Supply men to the enemy or entice away 
others who belong to the German army. 

"4. Who serve the enemy as a spy, lodge hostile 
spies, hide them or aid them. 

"And it is also to be noticed that it is forbidden 
to distribute newspapers and other printed matter 
published in the part of Belgium not occupied by Ger- 
man forces. It is forbidden to take communications 
of whatever kind from these parts of Belgium and 
those that are occupied by the German army. These 
offences will be punished with imprisonment. Serious 
cases, as, for example, any attempt to assist the hos- 
tile forces, will be followed by sentence of death. 

"Sterzel, 
"Major and Commanding Officer" 

I had also to promise the major that on my re- 
turn I should bring with me a copy of De Tijd in 
which all I had experienced and seen in Bilsen was 
described, and also a box of Netherland cigars, 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 189 

which he promised to pay for; then I was allowed to 

go. 

As I went a patrol marched out — reinforcements 
had again come from Tongres — whose task was to 
clear the district of the enemy. The patrol con- 
sisted of six Death-head hussars, about forty bi- 
cyclists, and the rest infantry, altogether about four 
hundred men, who were able to keep together, be- 
cause the hussars and the cyclists proceeded very 
slowly and cautiously in the direction of Lanaeken. 
I went with them, chatting with one of the officers. 
As soon as they had got to the road, the greatest 
caution was observed. The hussars went in front, 
followed by some of the infantry, all in loose forma- 
tion, continually looking about in all directions, with 
the finger at the cock of the rifle. 

Not a single person was seen on the road, and 
everything went well until we got to the village 
of Veldwezelt. Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a vio- 
lent rifle fire and a continued whistling of bullets was 
heard from the neighbourhood of a house close by. 
Although the soldiers later on asserted to the con- 
trary, I was sure that the firing did not come from 
the house, but from some underwood near by. 

After some firing one of the hussars was hit and 
fell from his horse, which ran away. A few seconds 
later another hussar was hit in his arm and his horse 
in its hind-part. Rider and horse flew away from 
the fire. The Germans had, of course, immediately 
answered the firing, and pulled me with them behind 
the bend of the road, where I lay down with them 
flat on the ground. A Belgian soldier who came 
out of the shrubbery with three others was shot, but 



190 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

as the firing went on for some time and the hussars 
and cyclists began to take to their heels, some order 
was given, and the Germans jumped up and ran 
away in the direction of Bilsen. I was told to come 
with them, so I also ran, and we all arrived at Bilsen 
out of breath. As soon as they had recovered their 
breath they gave vent to their rage. 

They yelled and shouted and said that Bilsen and 
the whole district must be burned down, that the 
major was far too kind, that they were cowardly 
soldiers who hid themselves in houses and dared not 
fight an honest fight in the open, that civilians had 
also been shooting, and so on. I pointed out that 
the firing did not come from the house, but from 
the shrubbery near the house; that nobody could 
have seen a civilian shooting. As they insisted, I 
said with a laugh that they had seen ghosts. That 
excited them so, that they came on to me in a rage, 
and asked whether this was a laughing matter? And 
they would surely have used violence had not the 
sergeant intervened. 

I went immediately to the major to give him a 
detailed report of the occurrence, and I believe that 
I may say without boasting that owing to my inter- 
vention Veldwezelt was not burned down, although 
other frightful things happened there. 

The hussar who was first hit, died later on. The 
other appeared to be only slightly wounded in the 
arm. 

Of course I had to remain at Bilsen after this 
adventure. The major appeased his men somewhat, 
mounted a ridiculously small horse, and marched out 
at the head of his men. Two hundred men who had 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 191 

just arrived from Tongres were added as reinforce- 
ments to the major's troops, who had now about 
six hundred men with him. Thus they went again 
to Veldwezelt, but the few Belgians, who were no 
fools, had left of course. 

Towards evening the major returned with his 
men, who in loud voices sounded forth all sorts of 
patriotic songs, elated because they had driven away 
the enemy. As he entered I addressed the major, 
who with a grand sweep of his arm called out to 
me: "You may go now; I have cleared the whole 
district." 

I was very curious to know what had happened 
in Veldwezelt. When I came near the village, I 
noticed great activity; men, women, and children 
were busy with saws and hatchets cutting down all 
the trees and shrubs along the road. 

Beautiful hedges, which had been grown artificially 
in fine forms for years, fell under the blows of the 
hatchets. The reason? Before the day was over 
all hedges, all shrubs, and all trees had to 
be cut down, or the village would be set on 
fire. Still shaking and trembling in consequence of 
the terrors they had experienced during the day, old 
men, women, and children with red flushed cheeks 
joined in the work; they had not even taken time to 
change their Sunday- for their working-day clothes. 

And if that had been all ! But dozens of boys 
and young men had been taken to Bilsen as prisoners. 
There had been a real hunt for all able-bodied lads 
who might be of any use in the Belgian army. 
Women and old men were compelled by threats to 
betray the hiding-places of their sons or husbands, 



192 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and if one of them was found hidden away under 
straw or in barns, he was ill-treated or beaten with 
rifle-butts. Some fled to Maastricht, others to the 
Campine, the northern part of Belgium. I presume 
that both groups have at length arrived in Ant- 
werp. 

Dr. Beckers, Government veterinary surgeon at 
Veldwezelt, had also been taken to Bilsen as a host- 
age. The Germans asserted that the Belgians in 
Lanaeken had taken prisoner a German military 
veterinary surgeon who looked after the horses, and 
now intended to keep Dr. Beckers until the Belgians 
should have released the German military veteri- 
nary surgeon. 

During the occupation a war contribution of 150,- 
000 francs in silver had been imposed on Bilsen, 
although there was hardly any silver left in the place. 
This punishment was inflicted because Belgian sol- 
diers had destroyed the railway in two places. 

Near Lanaeken I met suddenly a Belgian soldier, 
who did not trouble me after I had shown him my 
papers. I was quite astonished to find that man 
there all by himself, whilst so many Germans were 
only a few miles away. When I asked whether he 
knew this, he answered: 

"Yes." 

"Are you not afraid?" 

"No." 

"But when the Germans come!" 

"Then I shall shoot." 

"But that will mean death for yourself." 

"What does that matter? What do I care for 
life? I come from Dinant; they have murdered my 



ROUND ABOUT BILSEN 193 

dear parents, burned our house. What good is it 
to me to be alive? I requested them to give me this 
dangerous outpost. When the Germans come, I'll 
shoot, and then my comrades at Lanaeken will be 
warned. Then I'll kill three or four of them, but 
after that I shall be ready to die myself." 

The man looked at me with glittering eyes full of 
the passion of revenge. I pressed his hand and went 
on. 

Lanaeken seemed to have been reoccupied by the 
Belgians, after the occurrences of the previous Sun- 
day. When I entered the place, I found the greater 
number of the men round about the station. 

The Belgians who had fired at the Germans near 
Veldwezelt had also come back there. They were 
eleven motor-cyclists who had been reconnoitring; 
when near Veldwezelt they saw the Germans ap- 
proach and hid themselves in the shrubberies, in- 
tending to attack them. The only wounded person 
they had was only slightly hurt, and within a few 
days he would be able to rejoin his comrades. 

Mr. van Wersch, whom I mentioned above, and 
who shared imprisonment with me at Bilsen, had 
a rather disagreeable adventure a few days after- 
wards, when he had the misfortune of being mistaken 
for the war-correspondent of De Tijd. 

My letter to that paper about what had happened 
in Bilsen seemed to have reached the German au- 
thorities at that place, and these gentlemen were 
not at all pleased with it. When Mr. van Wersch 
came back to the place a few days afterwards he 
was mistaken for myself, and arrested at once. 

After having been searched all over, he was es- 



194 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

corted by a sergeant and two soldiers to Tongres, 
where they took him to Captain Spuer, the same fat 
officer who, so kindly, had called me a "swine." 

When they arrived at Tongres, the captain hap- 
pened to have returned to Bilsen, whither the pris- 
oner was brought back by the same escort. But 
Captain Spuer seemed not to be found there either, 
in consequence of which the major allowed Mr. van 
Wersch at last to go on. 

When he passed the village of Veldwezelt he met 
a motor-car ... in which was Captain Spuer. He 
recognised his victim at once, and also mistook him 
for the war correspondent of De Tijd. Mr. van 
Wersch was immediately detained again, and taken 
to a farm-house in the neighbourhood, where he was 
threatened with a revolver, and roared at: "You are 
the correspondent of De Ti)d." 

Mr. van Wersch denied this of course, but never- 
theless they took him to Bilsen in the motor-car. 
There he was searched once more, the Netherland 
letters he had with him were taken away, as also 
i, 800 francs. But when he was released they gave 
him back the money. 

Mr. van Wersch was told that they intended to 
send him to Tongres, but after a deliberation be- 
tween Captain Spuer and Major Krittel, a very 
kind man as I have already remarked, he was allowed 
to stay at Bilsen until the examination should be 
over. He was allowed to walk through the townlet 
under military escort at first, but later entirely free, 
and to sleep at the station under military guard. 
After another search, he was at last allowed to leave 
for Maastricht on Monday morning. 



CHAPTER XIV 

DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 

Many days before the Germans marched upon Ant- 
werp I announced the siege in my paper. In Lou- 
vain I had seen all the preparations and also the 
arrival of the Austrian 30 *5 cm. which were intended 
to batter to ruins the bulwark of the national de- 
fence. 

As soon as the siege had begun, I tried to join 
the Germans, via Louvain, and left Maastricht again 
by motor-car. Only a few miles from the Nether- 
land frontier I met the first soldiers, Belgians. 
When they saw the Orange flag with the word 
"Nederland," they let us pass without any trouble. 
A little farther on the road walked a civilian, who, 
by putting up his hands, requested or commanded 
us to stop. We took the most prudent part, and 
did stop. The man asked in bad Dutch to be al- 
lowed to drive on with us to Brussels, but the motor 
was not going beyond Tirlemont ; outside that place 
motor-traffic was forbidden. The stranger got in 
all the same, in order to have a convenient journey 
at least so far. 

My new companion tried desperately to speak as 
good Dutch as possible, but failed in the most de- 

195 



196 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

plorable manner; every time pure German words 
came in between. He told a story that he stayed 
at Maastricht as a refugee, and now wanted to fetch 
his children from a girls' boarding-school at Brus- 
sels. I pretended to believe every word, and after 
he had forgotten the first story he made up another, 
saying that he came from Liege, where some officers 
who were billeted on him were kind enough to give 
him a chance of going to Brussels, to purchase stock 
for his business. 

When we were stopped by German outposts he 
put out of the window a paper at which they just- 
glanced, stood to attention, and said that all was 
well. They did not even want to see my papers. 
In a casual way I asked what a miraculous sort of 
paper he had, and then he pretended that, by the 
help of those officers who were quartered on him, 
he had got a certificate from the Governor of Liege 
with the order to treat him with great respect and 
also to allow him to travel by military trains if the 
opportunity happened to offer itself. 

In Tongres it was necessary to get a passport 
signed, and pay three marks each, and ten marks 
for the motor. But the office of the commander 
was not open before three o'clock in the afternoon, 
according to the soldiers who were doing sentry-go 
in front of the town-hall. Wait till three o'clock? 
No fear! My companion showed his miraculous 
paper again, and was allowed to go in, but only 
by himself. I gave him my papers and those of the 
chauffeur, and also wanted to give him sixteen marks, 
three each for the chauffeur and myself and ten for 
the motor, but he said that that was unnecessary. 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 197 

Within twenty minutes the fellow came back with 
our verified passports on which the words "Paid: 
Free" were written. 

A lot of artillery and a great number of soldiers 
were in the market-place ready to start. The com- 
mander sent one of his officers to us, who addressed 
me, examined my papers, and then said that I had 
surely met Belgian soldiers on the way. Of course 
I denied this emphatically. 

"Don't you know then whether there are Belgian 
military in Vroenhoven?" 

"No." 

"And in Lanaeken?" 

"I know nothing about that." 

"Didn't hear either about it?" 

"No." 

Evidently he seemed to confide in me, and told 
me that they had been ordered to clear the north- 
east corner of Belgium of enemies, and that by and 
by they were going to march upon Lanaeken first 
of all. 

When he was gone I gazed for some moments in 
silence at all these men and guns, destined to go and 
destroy by and by the heroes, who have done so 
much harm to the Germans, under command of the 
brave lieutenant Count de Caritat, burgomaster of 
Lanaeken. I thought of that brave Belgian from 
Dinant whom I met on his solitary outpost outside 
Lanaeken, and if I had acted according to my heart's 
desire, I should have sneaked away to the threatened 
point in order to warn those courageous men of the 
appoaching disaster. 

My mysterious companion touched my shoulder 



198 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

and asked whether we should not go on. "All right," 
I said, and we got in again. 

At Tirlemont they were very busy rebuilding the 
burnt houses, although all day long the air shook 
from the heavy roar of the cannon near Antwerp. 

I sent the motor back to The Netherlands, and 
went with my companion to the commander's office, 
where we got a permit to go on by military train. 

From the side of Brussels many soldiers arrived 
at the station, who had all been wounded near Ant- 
werp. 

After a long time we were able to enter a train 
taking numerous new troops to Antwerp. We occu- 
pied a first-class compartment, which looked like a 
cattle-truck: pieces of bread, paper, cigar-ends, and 
tobacco were lying on the floor and the seats; the 
ledges of the windows were full of candle-grease. 

We jogged on to Louvain at a rate of not quite 
three miles an hour. Here and there we had to 
wait a half or a whole hour to let trains from Brus- 
sels pass. The reason why the train went so slowly 
was because a week before a Belgian patrol had 
daringly broken through the outposts and destroyed 
the railway near Lovenjool. That village was then 
burned down completely and the vicar made a pris- 
oner. 

Near Louvain the train had to stop for another 
two hours, before it was allowed to enter the station, 
which was quite close by. I thanked my stars that 
at last I got rid of my companion, who travelled 
on to Brussels, whereas I got out at Louvain. It 
was too late to be allowed to walk in the streets, but 
the commander gave me an escort of two soldiers, 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 199 

who were to take me to the mission house of the 
Fathers of the Sacred Heart. 

It was very cold that evening, and the outposts 
at Heverlee had all wrapped themselves up in blank- 
ets. Once or twice we were stopped, but the pass- 
word of my escort removed all difficulties. 

"Is it much farther?" one of my armed guides 
asked. 

"No, only a couple of minutes." 

"I am thirsty. I should like very much to have 
a glass of beer." 

"Yes," I replied, "but everything is closed." 

"Yes, yes, but we shall like it also to-morrow, 
hi, hi, hi!" 

It is as if the curse of drink always pursued the 
garrison in Louvain, for when and wherever I met 
German soldiers in that town, or came into touch 
with them, they were always drunk. That evening, 
also, I was glad when I arrived at the mission house, 
tipped the men, and got rid of them until the next 
day. 

The Fathers were already in bed, but I soon got 
them out again. Within ten minutes I was enjoying 
what, in the circumstances, was a splendid meal, 
and the Fathers were absorbed in the daily and illus- 
trated papers which I had brought for them. 

The conditions at Louvain were the same as some 
weeks ago : hunger and misery. Some male prisoners 
had come back, and also over 150 female prisoners, 
who for more than a month had been in captivity 
in the Munster Camp. During the last days a real 
reign of terror ruled. Hostages were continually 
claimed, and nearly always they took clerics. The 



200 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

week before the people had feared a new destruc- 
tion. It was said that there had been shooting again, 
but happily the inquiry showed that a German soldier 
did it, and he was punished. The shot had been 
fired in front of the Josephite convent. 

A remarkable strike had taken place in the Leo 
XIII Hospital. The head of this institution, Dr. 
Tits, also had been taken as a hostage. It was 
the most blackguardly act one can think of, to take 
away the man who had spent night and day mostly 
nursing wounded Germans. Dr. Noyons found it so 
harsh that he took counsel with the other doctors, 
and they decided not to resume work before Dr. Tits 
came back. This of course happened immediately. 

The man who bears the full responsibility for the 
destruction of Louvain, General von ManteurTel, had 
left already when I visited the town this time, and 
nobody has ever been able to find out what became of 
him. The latest proclamations were all signed: "By 
order of the General Government of Brussels — the 
Etappe-Commander." 

Louvain was of course on tenterhooks about the 
course of the siege of Antwerp, but everybody was 
quite confident that this fortress would withstand a 
long, long time, although they saw quite well that 
the German attack was very fierce, for the tremen- 
dous roar of the cannon never ceased for a moment. 

A walking excursion of one day took me to Brus- 
sels. I might have done it in a few hours less, but 
I lost my way in the wood-paths near Brussels, for 
at a certain moment I read on a finger-post, "Brus- 
sels four miles" ; and after walking for a long time, 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 201 

and wondering whether I should ever finish those 
four miles, I read suddenly: "Brussels — eight 
miles!" That gave me such a shock that once more 
I had nearly taken the wrong way. 

I put all my hope on a car that loomed up in the 
distance. It was assisting in the reprovisioning of 
Brussels, and only for that reason had the carman 
got permission to use it. I signalled to him, and 
he stopped — a big lout of a man who evidently 
had had a drop too much; he would not allow me 
to ride on with him, because he preferred to remain 
alone on his car than to help a spy. "I am a 
Belgian, a Belgian, and not a traitor, not a traitor 
of my country," he assured me, with a lot of beery 
tears. In any case the man meant well, and prob- 
ably he had tried to drown his troubles in drink. 

In other circumstances I should not have taken 
so much trouble, but I was so tired that I gave the 
man all my papers to make him see that I was a 
Netherland journalist. But according to him that 
didn't matter at all, because the Netherlanders were 
quite as dirty as the Germans, for they had allowed 
the enemies of Belgium to pass through their coun- 
try, and so on. In a torrent of words I told him 
that there was not a word of truth in it, and that 
the Belgian Government would surely lose no time 
in declaring the same as soon as the country was 
free again. At last I appealed to his heart by re- 
lating all the Netherlanders had done for the Bel- 
gians. This had the desired effect, and I was allowed 
to drive home with him. 

At every inn he felt thirsty, and made me feel 
quite clearly that I had every reason to treat him. 



%02 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

And every time that we went back to our seats he 
said again: 

"Yes, but now you see if after all you are a spy, 
you see, then, you see, I'll knock you down, you 
see?" 

"Yes, yes, but now listen ; I have told you already 
that . . ." 

"But don't you see if you should, don't you see, 
you see I am a patriot." 

"Oh, but listen: my papers . . ." 

"Yes, but you see they may be forged, you see. 
They may shoot me, you see, but a traitor, you see, 
no, then I would knock you down, you see . . ." 

That happened each time that he started again, 
and I was more tired by trying to convince this man 
than if I had walked all the rest of the way to 
Brussels. But after all I got there. 

There was much more liveliness in the Belgian 
capital than during my first visit; it was as if the 
bombardment of Antwerp had wakened the people 
out of their slumber, an apparent slumber only, for 
no citizens were ever more faithful to the Belgian 
cause than those of Brussels. 

There was shouting enough in the streets and 
on the boulewards; here hawkers tried to sell maps 
of the Fortress of Antwerp ; there women and girls 
offered scarf-pins with the portrait of Burgomaster 
Max. Everybody had such a pin, and I soon sported 
one too, for only then did these lady-sellers leave 
me alone. 

The German proclamations in Brussels were 
nearly as numerous as the Max pins. They showered 
them during the last days on the town, the one 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 203 

more insolent than the other. After reading those 
things, a proclamation by Burgomaster Max affected 
me beneficially, whenever I could find one amongst 
the mass of other bills posted on the walls. Such a 
document testified to a grand soul and a firm char- 
acter, which vindicated courageously the rights of 
the oppressed people. 

In the streets and in the cafes I saw a great many 
marines who had taken part in the fights near Ant- 
werp and were sent to Brussels for a few days' rest. 
It was remarkable that so many of them who had 
only lately looked death in the face, thought that 
they could not amuse themselves better than by 
mixing with girls of the worst description. Although 
I cannot, of course, always believe what soldiers, 
fresh back from a fight, assert in their over-excited 
condition, I assumed that I might conclude that 
things went badly with the defence of Antwerp. 

A trip from Brussels to the scene of the fight 
convinced me still more. I passed some time with 
the artillery which had already silenced Waelhem, 
and was now used against the other defences. The 
sight of such an action was less interesting than one 
might think, as I could not get to the places where 
the infantry were storming. Only the thunder of 
all these guns overwhelmed and gave me an idea of 
the terror that was created. 

From Antwerp, which I could see clearly from 
the positions of the artillery near Waelhem, high 
columns of smoke rose up from the Belgian artillery, 
which was harassing the German positions. 

Here I also saw in action one of the 30*5 cm. 
Austrian howitzers mentioned before. The clumsy 



204 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

monster was constantly being shunted on a rail 
forward and backward, and at long intervals sent 
a gigantic projectile to the threatened. quarters. The 
sound was terrific, and the pressure of the air made 
people at a great distance tremble on the ground. 
The Austrian artillerists were still equipped as if they 
had to fight in a rough, mountainous country; the 
soles of their shoes were all over covered with hob- 
nails. 

The Red Cross Service was well arranged, the 
wounded were transported regularly, a large number 
of motor-cars being used. 

All soldiers and officers took the siege of the great 
fortress calmly, convinced that at the most it would 
be able to hold out for very few days. Reliable 
information soon gave me the same impression, 
although I had wished it might have been quite dif- 
ferent. When I left the scene of the fight all the 
forts from Waelhem to St. Catherine-Waver had 
been silenced and in the hands of the Germans, who 
would soon attack the inner circle of forts. 

In Brussels the people seemed to be of a different 
opinion. German reports about successes obtained 
were simply not believed, and people persisted in 
their opinion that Antwerp would be invincible. 
The more reports of victories the Germans posted 
on the walls, the more excited people became, and 
palmed off upon each other all sorts of victories of 
the Allies. 

At the Cafe Quatre Bras, near Tervueren, the 
innkeeper told me that the Germans had asked the 
Netherland Government for permission to place a 
42 cm. on Netherland territory in order to be able 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 205 

to shell Antwerp also from that side, but that the 
Netherland Government had refused. I tried as 
hard as possible to explain to the man that all stories 
of such requests were mere gossip. When more and 
more people entered the cafe I withdrew into a 
corner. They were all very excited, and some of 
them had drunk more than was good for them. 
They related with violent gesticulations that the 
Allies had surrounded Brussels and might be ex- 
pected to enter the town at any moment, that all 
was over with the Germans, and so on. Shouts of 
"Vive la Belgique!" and "Vive notre roi!" sounded 
until suddenly I drew their attention. They looked 
me up and down critically, and one of them asked: 

"Who are you?" 

"A Netherland journalist, who is trying to get 
news for his paper." 

"What, a Netherlander! — a Netherlander! All 
traitors ! You are helping the Germans, but we are 
not afraid of either German or Netherlander." 

They crowded threateningly round me, getting 
more and more excited. 

I saw that I must act, and jumped on a chair. 

"What," I exclaimed, "you dare to say that the 
Netherlanders act with the Germans? No, shall 
I tell you something? The Germans have asked 
the Netherland Government for permission to place 
a 42 cm. gun on their territory to shell Antwerp 
from that side, but the Netherland Government 
have refused." 

"Lies, gossip." 

"Lies, gossip? Ask the proprietor." 

"Yes, men, what the gentleman says is true." 



206 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

The rest was lost to me, for the men crowded 
round the innkeeper, who now aired his knowledge 
about the occurrence and evidently spoke with true 
conviction. At the end of the conversation they 
took their tankards from the bar, and shouted and 
cried: "Ah, well, if that is so, vive la Hollande! 
vive la Belgique! vive notre roi!" Suddenly we 
were the best of friends. 

In Louvain people would not believe that Antwerp 
was on the point of surrendering, and persisted in the 
opinion that the fortress would hold out much 
longer, and was in a better position than ever 
before. 

The German officers at the commander's office 
were elated in consequence of the reports received, 
and also told me that Antwerp would not be able 
to hold out for more than two days. They also tried 
to explain this to the people in the hall who were 
waiting for their passports. I followed the con- 
versation, but not very closely, and one of the officers 
explained on a map what he asserted. Willy-nilly, 
because they had to get their passports, the wait- 
ing people listened to him. Suddenly I heard him 
say: "And after all we might have surrounded Ant- 
werp also on the north by crossing Netherland ter- 
ritory, as we did when we invaded Belgium." 

Those words gave me a shock, for I had heard 
that German officers always tried to encourage the 
Belgians in their wrong opinion about the alleged 
violation of Netherland neutrality, but I had not 
been able to believe it. With an innocent face I 
asked the officer: 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 207 

"Where did the Germans cross Netherland ter- 
ritory?" 

"Near Maastricht. You know where Maastricht 
is?" 

And he summoned me to look at the map, where 
he pointed out to me where Maastricht was. 

"Hullo!" I said, "but in those days I was in 
and about Maastricht, but I never noticed anything 
of it." 

"And yet it is so. Are you perhaps a Nether- 
lander?" 

"Oh yes, I am a Netherland journalist." 

"Is that so? I beg your pardon, but won't you 
come with me? I suppose that you want a passport. 
I will take you to the commander." 

He was quite upset, and evidently thought that 
the best plan was to muzzle me by taking me away 
from the others as quickly as possible. 

I asked and got the commander's permission to 
travel to Liege by military train, and from there to 
The Netherlands, not only for myself, but also for 
a Netherland girl of nine years, whose parents in 
Amsterdam had repeatedly and persistently asked 
me to see whether there would be any possibility 
of letting their little girl come back from a Louvain 
boarding-school. The Sisters with whom she was 
let her go with me when I showed them a letter 
from her father. That child had already seen a 
good deal ! The Sisters had fled with all the children 
at the time of the conflagration, and hidden them- 
selves for days in a farm in the neighbourhood. 

During the last days hundreds of lads had left 
Louvain for The Netherlands, and the migration 



208 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

went on throughout the whole occupied part of 
Belgium. It was the exodus of the levies of 19 14 
and 19 1 5, who had been called up, and many of 
whom had been sent to Germany as prisoners. The 
Germans themselves had not a little furthered the 
flight of these crowds; by proclamations they had 
warned the lads not to try to escape, for otherwise 
all of the levies of '14 and '15 would be taken 
prisoners, and the parents of the fugitives would 
be punished. At Heverlee and Louvain the lads 
of both levies had to present themselves every Friday 
at this station. The consequence was that the fol- 
lowing Friday not one single boy of those levies 
was to be found in either place. 

No more wounded were taken to the hospitals of 
Louvain, as it had been decided to send them 
straight on to Germany for the present; yet there 
were many wounded men who were being nursed 
there already, and the doctors had their hands full 
attending to the wounded who passed the town. 
Dr. Noyons told me that the previous Sunday a 
train with 600 wounded had arrived from North- 
ern France, and he and his assistants had been re- 
quested "just" to dress the wounds again of some of 
them. The condition of these unfortunate men must 
have been awful; not one had a dressing less than 
eight days old. Most of them had had it on much 
longer, and then these were merely emergency dress- 
ings. They were laid on straw in cattle trucks, many 
of them even in filth, and infection had worsened 
their condition to a great extent. Dr. Noyons and 
his colleagues tried to give the poor fellows as much 
relief as possible, but as a matter of course they 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 209 

could not do very much during a short stay at a 
station. 

The general condition of the town was not calmer 
during these last days. New hostages were taken 
continually, and generally, as before, they were 
clerics, in consequence of which the religious services 
were in a continual muddle, and sometimes on Sun- 
days no Holy Mass could be said. Burgomaster 
Nerinx had now posted proclamations in which he 
called for volunteers to serve as temporary hostages, 
instead of the priests, during the hours of religious 
service. As if it were office work they mentioned: 
"The service begins in the afternoon at . . . o'clock 
and will end after . . . days at . . . o'clock." 

It was self-evident that very few were keen to 
offer themselves as temporary substitutes for the 
clerics. 

I have, happily, not seen much of the distressing 
flight of the Antwerp population, as I happened 
to be at Liege when the fortress fell into German 
hands. I went to Zundert via Maastricht and Breda, 
in order to go to the conquered fortress from 
that Netherland frontier-town, north-east of Ant- 
werp. 

A good many refugees were on their way to The 
Netherlands, but the bulk of the crowd had passed 
before my visit along the long road which I walked 
now in the opposite direction. I did not arrive in 
Antwerp before nightfall and was then very tired. 
The town was dark, dismal, and deserted, and only 
German soldiers went about in the streets, appar- 
ently looking in vain for a shop or cafe where they 
might find some diversion. I myself, exhausted by 



210 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

a walk of twenty-five miles, sauntered along, con- 
stantly looking for some place or other to pass the 
night. Not a shop or hotel was open, and yet my 
stomach was craving for food, my body for rest. 
At last I met a policeman and told him of my 
difficulty. 

"Yes, sir," he answered, "that will be difficult 
enough. Everybody has fled, even my own wife 
and children. I remained because I thought it was 
my duty, and now I have been tramping through 
the streets already for over twenty-four hours, with- 
out being relieved. It seems that by far the greater 
number of my colleagues fled also." 

"Don't you think you could find me some hotel, 
or private people who might put me up ?" 

"I am very much afraid I shan't be able, but 
come along, and we'll try together." 

So we went from street to street, without any 
result. He rang the bell at many houses where he 
knew that acquaintances lived, but always in vain, 
and at last the kind man had to give it up. 

I went on by myself, and arrived at last in a street 
where I noticed a light in a house. When I came 
near, I stood opposite a small cafe, with "Lodgings" 
over the door. I was hardly able to go on, and did 
not care whether it was "lodgings" or "hotel," if 
I could only get in somewhere. 

But I did not stop long, for after a good look 
round it seemed the best to try and get away as 
quickly as possible, and in that I succeeded. One 
understands, however, that it was a terrific disap- 
pointment for a man so tired to leave again after 
thinking that he had at last found a place for 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 211 

rest. At length I found an hotel near the Central 
Station. 

Antwerp had suffered from the horror of war. 
The bombardment had destroyed many beautiful 
quarters almost entirely, and even damaged badly 
a number of hospitals. Of course the loss of many 
lives had to be deplored. 

The next day I had the pleasure of an interview 
with Cardinal Mercier, whose residence in Antwerp 
I had been able to find out at last. A wealthy lady 
had offered his Eminence her grand house. In one 
of the rooms I waited for the arrival of the cardinal, 
the Metropolitan of the Belgian Church Provinces, 
who, both as a prelate and a patriot, had been 
tried so sorely in this war, which ravaged both his 
university town and his episcopal town. Although 
he was exceedingly busy, his Eminence had the kind- 
ness to grant me an audience. 

As I was still musing about the tragedy of this 
venerable personality in these hard days of war, the 
door was opened suddenly and his spare figure stood 
before me. It was a moment full of emotion, and 
perhaps I might not have recovered myself so 
quickly if the kind prelate had not met me with so 
much kindness. 

After his Eminence had allowed me to kiss his 
ring, he asked me to sit down. I had now a good 
opportunity to notice how grief dwelt on his 
entirely spiritualised face, in its frame of white hair. 
But his extraordinary kindness in intercourse did 
not leave him for one moment. 

In connection with the summons, which had been 
sent in the name of the archdiocese to De Tijd, and 



212 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

had been proclaimed in all the churches of Antwerp 
in the morning, his Eminence insisted that it should 
be printed in its entirety, as very many priests had 
taken refuge in The Netherlands, whose help was 
pressingly wanted in the arch-diocese in many of the 
parishes. 

And he went on to say that he desired especially, 
most fervently the return of the fled population. 

"Really, in all sincerity," he said, "no danger 
need be feared. I should be very grateful if the 
newspapers in The Netherlands would draw atten- 
tion to the following promises which the German 
authorities gave me, and authorised me to make in 
their name : — 

"i. The young men need not fear that they will 
be taken to Germany in order to serve in the German 
army, or be compelled to do any work. 

"2. Should the police regulations be infringed 
anywhere by some individuals, the authorities will 
find the guilty parties and punish them, without 
attributing the guilt to the entire population. 

"3. The German and Belgian authorities will do 
everything in their power to prevent scarcity of 
food." 

"Your Eminence may permit me to remark that 
the second clause especially is very important and 
much more comforting than a previous declaration 
of the Imperial Governor, that owing to occasional 
mistakes he cannot prevent the innocent population 
from having to suffer with those who are guilty. 
May I ask, has this favourable result been obtained 
by your personal intervention?" 

"That is to say . . . yes. I have suggested these 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 213 

measures and they have been consented to. I hope 
that they may induce all the refugees in The Nether- 
lands to return at once. A press bureau in your 
country has circulated the report that I too had 
planned to fly. There was no truth in it at all. 
It was my duty not to leave my people, is not that 
so? The shepherd must stay with his sheep, the 
vicars must do the same, and those who went away 
must therefore come back." 

"Your Eminence visited Malines last Tuesday, 
I have been told. I may perhaps ask how you 
found the condition of the cathedral and the 
town?" 

The cardinal's face was overclouded suddenly, and 
quietly he answered : 

"Pardon me, it is perhaps better not to say a 
word about that for the moment. We are living 
through difficult times." 

I understood and respected the restraint of the 
Belgian primate, who went on then: 

"Tuesday of next week I hope to be at Malines 
again, and on the 20th of this month the adminis- 
trative service of the archdiocese will be rein- 
stalled." 

"Then you will stay again at the episcopal palace, 
your Eminence?" 

"Yes, certainly. It will take time of course, but 
the damage done to the St. Rombout church and the 
palace is not irreparable; the church has suffered 
very much, the spire is less damaged." 

"Much will be needed to repair what has been 
damaged in this unfortunate country." 

"Yes, yes. An immense amount will be neces- 



214 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

sary. We are about to form committees; but so 
much is needed. In England they are also forming 
committees, and I have received money already 
from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and The 
Netherlands. . . ." 

For a moment he gave way to emotion. He hesi- 
tated for a few seconds, and I saw tears in his eyes. 
He then went on with a trembling voice : 

"The Netherlands is a generous country. How 
grateful, how immensely grateful am I to the 
Netherland people for what they have done for poor 
refugees. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude. 
I have received reports from priests who came back, 
and I am deeply moved by them. They told me 
how at Roosendaal the Netherland soldiers gave 
all their bread to the refugees, knowing well that 
for some time they themselves would not get any 
other. No ! I can never be sufficiently grateful 
for such sacrifices. And Catholics and non-Catholics 
all joined in it. That is beautiful, very, very beau- 
tiful." 

"Your Eminence, what The Netherlands did for 
the poor Belgians came from the heart of the people, 
and I know for certain that the Catholics will be 
eager to contribute to the rebuilding of the destroyed 
churches and houses." 

"The Netherlands has done already so much, 
but if it would come to the assistance of our un- 
fortunate people also in this way it would greatly 
gladden the archiepiscopal government, who will be 
only too happy to accept gifts in these difficult 
times; and perhaps the Right Reverend Netherland 
bishops may be willing to send the gifts for this pur- 



DURING THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP 215 

pose to us. We might then distribute those gifts 
among the parishes in the country which have suf- 
fered most." 

"Well, in any case, your Eminence, I promise to 
bring it to the knowledge of the Catholics in The 
Netherlands, and you may rely upon their readiness. 
But now I will not take more of your valuable time, 
which you give so zealously to the poor and the 
unfortunate. I thank you very much for having 
granted me this audience." 

"It was in the interests of our suffering country, 
and we are those who ought to be grateful. May 
I insist once more that you ask our refugees to come 
back to Antwerp and don't omit to state the three 
favourable regulations. . . ." 

His Eminence then got up, kindly offered me his 
hand, the ring on which I kissed, and escorted me 
to the door in the amiable, simple way of which I 
shall retain the memory for ever. 

I can see now once more how little Germans care 
about the given word. They asked and obtained 
from Cardinal Mercier his co-operation to incite the 
population to return, but the cardinal, always anxious 
to safeguard his compatriots, made conditions to 
which they consented. 

The first of them was that no young man should 
be taken to Germany, or compelled to work. Now 
how many lads are not already in Germany, how 
many have not been compelled, especially in both 
the Flanders, to do work for the Germans? And 
were not loyal people who refused to do it im- 
prisoned? Yes ! Did not these violators of law and 
right proclaim that all appeal to international agree- 



216 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

ments would be useless? "We shall no longer pun- 
ish a whole population for the deeds of individuals," 
they also promised Cardinal Mercier. But many 
communities have had fines and taxes imposed upon 
them in consequence of the offence of one individual. 

And although they also promised to do every- 
thing in their power to prevent lack of food in 
Belgium, they have bled to death the unfortunate 
country by continuous impositions and taxes, and 
thrown many into poverty and misery. 

Yes, in the most scandalous manner they have 
violated the promises which the Germans gave Car- 
dinal Mercier. But what signifies a word if treaties 
are only "scraps of paper?" 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ILL-TREATMENT OF BRITISH 
WOUNDED 

I returned from Louvain by military train. This 
one had had a most adventurous journey before it 
reached Louvain. It had left Cambrai in North 
France three days before, always going slowly and 
making long stops, to spare the seriously wounded 
at least a little. I estimated that in my train over 
2,000 wounded had been loaded in a long, dismal 
procession of wagons. Most of them had not had 
their bandages renewed for a fortnight, and were 
still wearing the first emergency dressing; all came 
from the neighbourhood of Arras. 

A little to the north of this town many had been 
lying wounded in the trenches for over eight days, 
without being able to get their wounds bandaged. 
They had to admit the success of the French field 
artillery, which produced a most serious effect. 

The Germans all agreed that their right wing 
lacked artillery. The German soldiers who fell 
there were all killed in their trenches by the falling 
bombs, there was not sufficient field artillery to an- 
swer this murderous fire efficiently, and they could 
not do anything with their rifles against the invisible 

217 



218 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

enemy. The artillery fire of the French was most 
serious from the ist to the 4th of October, and 
during those days the German trenches must have 
been a real hell. On October 4th a general "sauve 
qui peut" began from the trenches. 

But the shell-fire of the French overtook them 
then, as they were retreating, while many others 
were killed by bombs from French aeroplanes, which 
were in action in great numbers. The retreat had 
not stopped before the Germans arrived in Cam- 
bray, where the thousands of wounded could at last 
be put in long trains and sent to Aix-la-Chapelle. A 
great many bombs from aeroplanes also hit these 
trains and killed a great many; my own train was 
everywhere pierced by fragments of those bombs. 
Within the carriages it was unendurable; the 
wounded men and their malodorous bandages had 
occupied them such a long time that the atmosphere 
was simply insupportable. Happily there was a 
corridor, where I stood all the time, with the little 
girl, in the company of some German military men 
who were sent home, not on account of wounds, but 
because of internal complaints. 

Very slowly the huge monster sauntered along, 
stopping and waiting everywhere to allow long trains 
with fresh troops to pass. These came straight from 
Germany, with the youngest levies and volunteers 
who had just finished their drill. These had deco- 
rated their trains all over with green boughs and 
outside painted all sorts of caricatures, from which 
especially King George had to suffer much. Then 
one read "To Paris, to England," and similar hope- 
ful devices. 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 819 

When their train approached ours they looked 
out of the windows, or opened the doors, and waved 
and greeted and shouted at the top of their voices. 

But as soon as these "tender-foots" came along- 
side our train and were not met with the same im- 
petuous enthusiasm as they displayed themselves, 
but, on the contrary, saw sick, discouraged, exhausted 
faces gazing at them distressedly, their boisterous- 
ness suddenly extinguished, and a nervous, terrified 
expression pursed up their mouths. And the trains 
were already at some distance from each other be- 
fore the young soldiers remembered that they ought 
to shout and to wave to those who had already done 
so much for the Fatherland. 

We arrived at Landen, a place between Tirlemont 
and Waremme, where we had a stop of forty min- 
utes, in order to feed the wounded. Soup was served 
from large washing-tubs, and I and my small com- 
panion were also offered some of this soldiers' food. 
When I had finished my meal, and walked up and 
down the platform in order to stretch my legs, my 
attention was drawn to an uproar in front of one 
of the last wagons. I went there, and shall not for- 
get what I saw as long as I live; I wish that I had 
never seen it. 

Amongst some Frenchmen, three British soldiers, 
seriously wounded, were lying on some straw. They 
looked distressed, and I thought that their condition 
was critical. I was told that these men had not 
had any food for five days, and now there stood in 
front of the open wagon doors two to three hundred 
German soldiers, partly slightly wounded, who were 
well able to walk, partly German soldiers of the 



220 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

Landen garrison, who had been told off for distribut- 
ing the soup. These two to three hundred men raged 
and jeered at those three unfortunate, heavily 
wounded British soldiers, who had not eaten for 
five days, and lay groaning helplessly on some dirty 
straw in a cattle-truck. The steaming tubs with 
hot soup were shown them, and these Germans 
shouted at them: "You want to eat, swine, swine; 
you ought to be killed! Beat them to death! — beat 
them to death! Here, that's what you ought to 
get!" 

As they spoke these last words they aimed their 
rifles at the unfortunate, bleeding, helpless, and 
hungry creatures. Others spat on their clothes and 
in their faces, and the enraged Germans foamed at 
the mouth. 

With weak eyes, eyes telling of approaching death, 
one of them gazed at these cruel torturers, or looked 
hungrily at the steaming soup; the two others had 
turned their heads on one side and closed their eyes. 
But at last also the third turned off his head and 
closed his eyes, sighing and groaning. In the 
meantime the Germans went on threatening them, 
blurting out all sorts of filthy abuse, spitting or 
threatening them with their rifles, while others were 
laughing and enjoying the helplessness of those 
three. 

I stood still, dumb, aghast, unable to utter a word. 
Then I went to a sergeant who was also looking on 
and laughing; and, trembling all over, I said: 

"What is happening here is frightful; those men 
are also human beings, who had to do their duty as 
much as you!" 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 221 

I couldn't say more, my voice stuck in my throat. 

And what was his answer? 

"What? Do their duty? No, they are swine — 
paid swine; they get money for their dirty work, 
the swine!" 

I did not answer. I could not. Silently I looked 
a little longer at the beastly scene, only sorry that 
I was not a giant who, with one strong hand, might 
restrain the roughs, and refresh with the other the 
burning, feverish lips of the wretched men. 

What distressed me most was that among those 
two to three hundred soldiers in front of that open 
cattle-truck was not one man who wanted to take 
the part of these unfortunate British; no, not one! 

When I reported the occurrence in De Tijd, I was 
fully conscious of the frightful accusation implied 
by my information; but I am prepared to confirm 
with the most sacred oaths that nothing in this accu- 
sation is untrue or exaggerated. 

I was not afraid of an inquiry, but asked for it 
as a matter of fact, by writing in my report: — 

"And if the German authorities intend to institute 
a serious and impartial inquiry, then I give them the 
following particulars: 

"It happened at Landen on Friday, October 9th, 
in the train with wounded which arrived there from 
Brussels at about noon, when food was being dis- 
tributed." 

The German authorities have indeed made in- 
quiries about the matter; I shall deal with that in 
the next chapter. 



222 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

What happened at Landen made a very deep 
impression upon me; it shocked me more than all 
the terrible things which I had seen during the 
war and all the dangers which I went through. 
When the train went on again, and the soldiers 
began to speak to me once more, I was unable to 
utter a word and sat there musing. 

Before I witnessed this terrible event at Landen 
some Germans in the train had already told me 
that they simply killed the British whom they made 
prisoners. Others assured me that such a thing 
did not happen in their division, but one asserted 
that by his company alone already twenty-six had 
been killed. I did not believe them then, and 
thought that they were better than they made them- 
selves out, but after having witnessed that scene at 
Landen . . . ! 

One hour before the arrival at Liege the engine 
of our train dashed into another, and got so badly 
damaged that all the water from our engine ran 
away. This caused a delay of another two hours, 
so that we did not arrive at Liege before dusk, and 
could not think of reaching The Netherlands that 
day. 

I took the little Amsterdam girl to my niece in 
the convent of the Sisters of Mercy, and went to 
an hotel myself. A German newspaper, bought at 
a bookstall, gave in gigantic type the information 
that Antwerp might fall at any moment, and a re- 
cently posted bulletin brought the feared-for news. 
But the people of Liege could not, and would not 
believe it. 

I had expected it and believed the reports, but it 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 

hurt all the same. I had had intercourse with Ger- 
man soldiers almost exclusively; but that gave me 
a much better opportunity for observing their con- 
duct, which roused in me a deep sympathy for the 
poor, oppressed Belgian people. That was why I 
was so sorry to hear of the fall of Antwerp, although 
I was not discouraged. Right would triumph, and 
the day come when the Belgian nation would shake 
off the foreign yoke of tyranny, and repair in peace 
and prosperity, under the sagacious rule of their 
king, what barbarians destroyed and pulled down. 
The next day I got to The Netherlands with my 
small protegee, after a tiring walk from Herstal to 
Eysden, where we could take the train to Maastricht. 
Here the father of the little girl came to meet his 
daughter, and took her to Amsterdam, to her 
"Mummy," of whom she had been speaking during 
the whole journey with so much longing. 

Only now did I hear what had happened to the 
village of Lanaeken after I had seen the German 
preparations in Tongres for action against the little 
Belgian army that was still about in the north- 
eastern part of the country. The greater part of 
Lanaeken had been destroyed by shelling, and of 
course a great many innocent victims had fallen in 
consequence. 

By destroying the life and possessions of peaceful 
civilians the Germans- — who always boast so much 
about their military honour — gave unconscious ex- 
pression to their awe of the fearless heroes who still 
stood their ground to the north of Liege, whilst the 
Germans were still besieging Antwerp. 



224 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

I have mentioned already that the German authori- 
ties had ordered a so-called inquiry about what hap- 
pened at Landen. As the result of this inquiry the 
press of all neutral countries had the following two 
official communications wired to them : — 

"Berlin, November 10th. (E. B.). — A corre- 
spondent of De Tijd m Amsterdam has told a num- 
ber of details about the so-called bad treatment of 
British wounded at the station of Landen, according 
to which the British had been left without food or 
drink, had been spit in their faces, and our soldiers 
were alleged to have aimed their rifles at them. The 
German Government had instituted a thorough in- 
quiry into this matter and publish the result: 'The 
entire allegation of the correspondent is untrue. 
None of the details is covered by the facts. The 
British have not been beaten nor pushed nor spit at, 
but on the contrary warm food was offered them, 
which was accepted by all except two. Store-inspec- 
tor Huebner and the landwehr-soldier Krueger have 
testified to this." 

"Berlin, November 10th. (W. B.) Official. — The 
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung writes : 'The daily 
newspaper, De Tijd, issued at Amsterdam, published 
on October 16th a report from a war correspondent 
at Maastricht, in which he asserted that on October 
9th a train in which more than two thousand 
wounded were transported, arrived at the station 
at Landen in Belgium between Tirlemont and 
Waremme. Here it was said that a stop had taken 
place of forty minutes in which to provide the 
wounded with food. Walking up and down the plat- 
form the reporter pretends to have seen two to three 
hundred German soldiers, slightly wounded men and 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 225 

men of the garrison of Landen, furiously abuse three 
seriously wounded British, who were lying in one of 
the last carriages of the train. They showed mugs 
full of steaming soup to the hungry British, whom 
they left lying there miserable from starvation. They 
were also said to have aimed their rifles at them, 
laughing roughly, and to have spit on them. 

" 'These allegations of the reporter of De Tijd 
caused the authorities to institute inquiries, and the 
following is now stated with regard to the alleged 
events : 

" 'On October 9th no train with two thousand 
wounded arrived at the station of Landen, but only 
small transports whose number can be checked ac- 
curately by the lists of wounded. Rioting by two 
to three hundred soldiers near a carriage could not 
take place, as the station guard was instructed to 
keep free a path along the train. There is, more- 
over, always an officer of the station-guard present, 
when a train with wounded leaves. It is impossible 
that the soldiers could have aimed their rifles at the 
British, as the men who get their food in the dining- 
hall, as also the serving military personnel, are al- 
ways unarmed. Other soldiers are not admitted to 
the station. The British have neither been beaten, 
nor stabbed, nor spit at; on the contrary plates full 
of hot soup have been offered them which were re- 
fused by two of them. This has been confirmed by 
the declarations of people who were present.' " 

Of course I did not withhold my answer, pilloried 
the hardly serious inquiry of the Germans, and pub- 
lished immediately an extensive contradiction in De 
Tijd. I quote the following from it : — 



226 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

"Only about a month after the publication of my 
story about what happened at Landen, the German 
Government and military authorities considered that 
the time had come to contradict it, after ordering an 
inquiry which in reality cannot be called an inquiry 
at all. From their communiques it is clear that some 
soldiers were heard who probably were privy to the 
act, and in any case benefited by a denial of the vil- 
lainy committed at Landen. That is to say, men who 
were counsel in their own cause, and who were be- 
lieved the sooner because their declarations were de- 
sirable for the support of German credit. But it 
does not appear from these communiques that the 
German authorities also examined the wounded who 
were present, nor the two Netherlanders who trav- 
elled by that train: the young Miss de Bruin, from 
Amsterdam, and the present writer, as also the civil- 
ian witnesses at Landen. In opposition to the evi- 
dence of Stores-inspector Huebner and the landwehr- 
soldier Krueger, of which evidence it has not been 
stated that they gave it on oath, I declare myself pre- 
pared and willing, if a complete and impartial in- 
quiry be instituted, to declare upon oath either to a 
properly qualified committee in The Netherlands or 
in Germany, or to a thereto-appointed arbiter, the 
following : 

" *i. On Friday, the ninth of October, at noon, I 
stopped at Landen about forty minutes after arriv- 
ing from Louvain in a terribly long train of passen- 
ger carriages and goods vans, with approximately 
two thousand wounded. (This estimate may be 
wrong to the extent of a couple of hundred, but that 
does not matter.) During this time the wounded 
were fed. 

" 'I saw how two to three hundred German sol- 
diers, part of them slightly wounded, who were well 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 227 

able to walk, partly soldiers of the Landen garri- 
son, who crowded about the open doors of one of 
the last wagons, raging and jeering against three 
seriously wounded British soldiers, about whom their 
French fellow-passengers told me that they had had 
nothing to eat for five days. The wounded were 
called "swine," were spit at, and some rifles were 
aimed at them. When I told a sergeant that it was 
a disgusting scene, he answered: "These British 
swine, they get paid for their filthy work." He al- 
luded to the pay which the British volunteers re- 
ceive because they enlist as mercenaries, Britain hav- 
ing no compulsory general military service. Before 
I witnessed this awful thing at Landen, Germans in 
the train had already told me that they simply killed 
any British whom they made prisoners. Others said 
that such a thing did not happen in their division, 
but one man contended that by his company already 
twenty-six had been killed. I did not believe them, 
and thought that they were better than they pre- 
tended to be. 

" i 2. The soup had been offered to the British, 
but two refused to take it, says the German Govern- 
ment. Yes, it was offered these wretched people, 
but, as I have said already, the German soldiers kept 
the steaming soup before them, shouting at them: 
"You want to eat, you swine ! — you swine ! you ought 
to be killed! This is what you may have!" And 
as they said the latter they aimed their rifles at the 
unfortunate men, whilst others who were not armed 
lifted up their fists and threatened them, or spat at 
them. 

" 'In my report about the occurrence I had not 
even exposed in all its harshness the treatment dealt 
out to the French soldiers. For they too were not 
offered plates of soup, but only the mugs were filled, 



THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

forming part of their equipment. And there were 
many who put out these mugs as if supplicating to 
have them filled once more ; as that was not done they 
constantly put the empty mug to their mouth to try 
and lick off any remaining drops that might have 
stuck to its side. Some Germans said: "Yes, the 
French may have something, for they are soldiers, 
but those three there, well, they are paid swine." 

" '3. I published the facts and insisted upon an 
impartial inquiry, in order to prevent, if possible, 
that only guilty soldiers should be heard should a 
complaint about the occurrence be lodged with the 
highest military authority. 

" 'Instead of facing such an impartial inquiry with 
an examination of all available witnesses and pun- 
ishment of the guilty, the German government finds 
the courage only to call me, a month after the event, 
"a liar," and the whole story a fairy-tale! 

" 'If the German government had come somewhat 
earlier with their contradiction, it might have been 
possible to cite another witness, for — I have not re- 
ported that at first — among those who were present 
there was a civilian, an inhabitant of Landen, who 
also looked with anger at the cruel scene, and ex- 
pressed his indignation when he could no longer re- 
strain himself. But then there was a general out-, 
cry of: 

" ' "What is this civilian doing here ?" The young 
man could not explain his presence satisfactorily, and 
a couple of soldiers got hold of him, and, in the 
literal sense of the word, threw him away. When 
he waited at a short distance a little longer, with an 
angry face, one of the soldiers ran at him, threaten- 
ing him with his bayonet. I might have been able 
to find that young man at the time, but now, a month 
later, this will be much more difficult. There was 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 229 

also another group of civilians packed as densely as 
herrings in a cattle-truck on another line ; they must 
have seen the beastly occurrence as well. 

" 'I might quote another small detail. Before the 
train arrived at Landen I had had a very pleasant 
chat in the corridor with a German soldier, who 
seemed tolerably humane and civilised, even in his 
talk. After the departure from Landen I again got 
into conversation with him, and did not fail to ex- 
press my indignation; and then he gave me the fol- 
lowing reply: "Oh well, one must think of the posi- 
tion of our soldiers, who have been for days in the 
trenches under the murderous fire of the enemy. 
Later on they will themselves repent for what has 
happened." Perhaps the German government may 
be able to discover who that soldier is, if I add that 
he went home for good because he was suffering from 
heart-disease. 

" 'And then there is something else. The brakes- 
man of the wagon in which I travelled was a man 
who had enlisted only a couple of weeks ago as a 
volunteer for the service on the railways, and, if I 
remember correctly, hailed from Hamburg. He be- 
longed to a Trades Union which had already once 
made a trip to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and was 
for instance able to tell me that Krasnapolsky at 
Amsterdam was a large hotel. I also spoke to that 
man about what had happened, because I thought I 
had noticed that he was more human, but he too 
gave me the cynical answer: "Oh well, the French 
may have something to eat, they fight also for their 
country, but not those British, they only fight because 
that is their profession." 

" '4. With regard to the arms of the German sol- 
diers, it is true that the wounded men had none with 
them, but I have distinctly stated that the crowd con- 



230 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

sisted of soldiers who belonged to the lightly 
wounded and of soldiers belonging to the Landen 
garrison. These latter had been told off to guard 
the station and the platforms and maintain order. 
It is possible that they had also to prevent the 
wounded from moving about on the platforms, but 
in that case they did not stick to their task, because 
everybody was free to go where he liked, and I my- 
self did the same. That these guards did not guard 
anything at all at the moment is proved by the fact 
that the above-mentioned civilian was able to come 
near the riot, although he had to pass a number of 
platforms. That the soldiers belonged to the Lan- 
den garrison and had to do sentry-go is proved by 
the fact that they had their bayonets on their rifles. 

" 'Finally, the contention that no riot could have 
taken place because the soldiers were fed in the din- 
ing-hall is entirely incorrect. That dining-hall was 
nothing but a shed entirely open at the front, in 
which there were a few seats. There the slightly 
wounded soldiers were fed first, and when they had 
supplied those, food was taken to the seriously 
wounded, who had to stop in the train, as also to 
myself and my little companion. The slightly 
wounded and the soldiers of the guard walked off 
with the distributors of the soup along the train in 
order to have a chat with their comrades in it. In 
that way they also came to the British when the 
wagon-door had been opened. It will be evident 
that I observed closely and retained in my memory 
all that had happened there and in the neighbour- 
hood. 

" '5. My pertinent declarations are now opposed 
by the German official contradiction; but how weak 
is the argument! I have already pointed out that 
only comrades of the accused men have been heard, 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 231 

but not the accuser, nor, as is evident, the victims, 
nor other witnesses. There is more : "Crowding 
of two to three hundred soldiers near a wagon can- 
not occur" — thus says the communique — "because 
the station-guard's duty is to keep free the path along 
the train." Does anyone understand the weakness 
of this contradiction? It is as if one should say: 
"It is impossible that anything has been stolen in a 
town because it is the duty of the police to guard 
it." "Moreover there is also always an officer of 
the station-guard present at the departure of a train 
of wounded," the communique proceeds. But again 
I ask: What does this prove? It is a fact that this 
officer, if he was present, did not prevent what hap- 
pened. "It is impossible that the soldiers aimed 
their rifles at the British, because the men who get 
their food in the dining-hall, and those of the military 
who distribute it, are always unarmed; no other 
soldiers are admitted to the station." I see that 
the German government simply quote the military 
regulations, and from them determine the facts. 
They cannot realise that it might be possible for their 
regulations not to be obeyed always. 

" '6. I am convinced that on the whole the treat- 
ment of the wounded was generous and exemplary. 
But it is also a fact that the terrible hatred of the 
Germans against the British, encouraged by their 
military authorities (one has to think of the procla- 
mation of Prince Rupert of Bavaria) and their scan- 
dalous comic papers, which disgust even decent Ger- 
mans, induce to extravagances such as I witnessed at 
Landen. Did not a German officer explain to an 
editor of the Algemeen Handelsolad (evening issue 
of October 18th) : "The unwritten order is to make 
everywhere as many French and as few English pris- 



THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

oners as possible ; we don't try to wound, but to kill 
the British." ' " 

I think that my answer left nothing to be desired 
for plainness, and Germany cannot have derived 
much pleasure from its official contradiction. More- 
over, the editor of De Tijd had also made inquiries 
from the little girl whom I escorted from Louvain 
on the day of the occurrence at Landen, and al- 
though I admit at once that not too great a value 
can be attached to the evidence of a girl of nine, I 
insert here what the editor wrote about that inter- 
view : — 

"Our editor has moreover interviewed young 
Miss Antoinette de Bruijn here, whom our corre- 
spondent brought from Louvain to Maastricht. In 
the presence of her mother she told how she had been 
in a train full of wounded, that there were armed 
soldiers on the platform, and that some wounded 
soldiers had been teased by offering them steaming 
soup which was not given to them. The father of 
this girl, Mr. de Bruijn, also assured us that when 
he met his daughter at Maastricht, our correspond- 
ent, Mr. Mokveld, was still very much under the 
impression of what he had witnessed." 

My contradiction became known in Germany, and 
it was an eye-opener to a great many people there. 
The editor of De Tijd received many letters from 
that country, and printed some of them with the 
name of the writer added. From these it seems 
that even there it was acknowledged in some circles 
that the German inquiry had been extremely one- 



ILL-TREATMENT OF WOUNDED 233 

sided, and that it would have been wiser to admit 
what had happened at Landen, and punish the 
culprits. 

The only purpose of my publication was to con- 
vince everybody of this, and thereby prevent the 
repetition of such a scandalous scene. 



CHAPTER XVI 

ON THE YSER 

From the pretty town of Sluys in the Netherland 
part of Flanders I made a good many trips to the 
Belgian coastal regions and the Yser, the little river 
that will always be named in history, because there 
came the end of the German advance, and there the 
Belgian army displayed all its power, fighting with 
the courage of lions in defence of the last bit of their 
native soil. 

Yes, Sluys will always live in my memory. How 
well have been received the thousands of Belgians 
who went there for shelter and how much misery 
have I seen relieved by the effectual mutual help 
of the Belgians and that of the civil and military 
Netherland authorities. The burgomaster in partic- 
ular seemed to be the right man in the right place, 
and it was chiefly due to his sagacity that every- 
thing went so regularly in that small town, which 
had to maintain the proportionately greatest number 
of refugees. 

In Sluys I also got to know by friendly intercourse 
the character of the Belgians, so open, so straight- 
forward, and so bright. 

From this town I got the best connections with 

234 



ON THE YSER 235 

the West of Belgium, and as a rule I always made 
my first visit to ancient and pretty Bruges, which 
was constantly strongly occupied by the Germans. 
In front of the well-known Halls two small guns 
had been mounted, threatening the market-square. 
The same was the case in front of the Palace of 
Justice, where the commander's office was estab- 
lished. The Government buildings in the market 
were entirely occupied by the naval staff of Admiral 
von Schroeder, and dozens of sailors were sitting 
in the offices, working at their typewriting machines. 
Soldiers came from and went back to the Yser, 
which river I saw three times during the fierce 
fighting. 

The first time when the Germans had only been 
there for about ten days, and huge masses were sent 
to the scene of battle, because they had decided 
to break through at any cost. 

Along the coast the German line did not reach 
far beyond Mariakerke, where a big German flag 
on a high dune indicated their most advanced front. 
Thanks to the consent of a couple of officers! was 
allowed to push on to the front lines, and did this 
in spite of the danger from bursting shrapnel. The 
wounded had to walk back from there to Ostend, 
very often suffering the most trying pains, because, 
according to what they told me, the Red Cross 
Service was not able to help them all. They were 
very dissatisfied on account of the waste of human 
life by which the attacks were accompanied, and 
some made bitter remarks about the staff which 
seemed to be mad, constantly sending new troops into 
the murderous fire with such evident callousness. 



236 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

I have been able to assist a good many of these 
unfortunate people by bandaging the wounds with 
the dressing they gave me, or getting some water 
for them from some house in the neighbourhood; 
and one, who had fallen down exhausted by pain, 
I carried into a house. 

I had more trouble with a wretch who, being 
heavily wounded in both legs, lay on the top of a 
dune beyond Mariakerke. He was quite alone, and 
when he discovered me his eyes glistened, full of 
hope. He told me of his agonies, and beseeched 
me to take him to a house or an ambulance. How- 
ever much I should have liked to do that, it was 
impossible in the circumstances in which I found 
myself. Nowhere, even in the farthest distance, 
was a house to be seen, and I tried to explain the 
position to him. But he turned a deaf ear to all my 
exhortations, and insisted that I should help him. It 
was a painful business, for I could not do the im- 
possible. So I promised him, and took my oath 
that I should warn the first ambulance I met, and 
see to it that they came and fetched him. 

I went away urging him to maintain his courage 
for the time being, but he had scarcely noticed that 
I was about to go, when his eyes began to gleam and 
to roll in his head; then he took his rifle, which was 
lying by his side, and I, seeing his intention, ran 
down the dune as quickly as possible, whilst I heard 
the well-known click-clack behind me; the man had 
fired two bullets at me. . . . 

I must not take that sort of thing amiss. Who 
knew with how much pain and how long he had 
been lying there, facing death, but fearing it too. 



ON THE YSER 237 

At last someone came near, and he put all his hope 
in that man, but a hope that vanished. Yes, I can 
quite understand that a man in those conditions 
goes mad. 

I was not able to stay long at Mariakerke, but 
succeeded, by going in an easterly direction, to get 
near Leke, where the fight was also in full swing, 
and where evidently the same command had been 
issued: "Advance at any cost." The German artil- 
lery stood south of Leke, but I succeeded in push- 
ing on to a hill near the road, where I could see 
the columns of smoke of the Belgian artillery and 
the clouds of dust which the German shrapnel threw 

up. 

The Germans advanced in a formation which I 
had never seen yet. The men went at the double- 
quick in closed ranks three abreast, each of the 
threefold files marching at a small distance from 
the other. 

They stormed the Belgian lines with lowered 
bayonets. The Belgians quietly allowed them to 
come near, but as soon as they were at a certain 
distance from the trenches they wished to take, I 
heard the rattle of the mitrailleuses, and the thunder 
of the guns. The storming soldiers then disappeared 
in a fog of smoke and dust, in which I saw their 
shadows fall and stagger. This went on for about 
ten minutes, and then they came back in complete 
disorder, still followed by the hostile bullets and 
shrapnel. 

A period of calm followed, but not for long, for 
again and again new attacks were made. 

I myself was not very safe either, for frequently 



238 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

bursting shells fell near me. I therefore thought 
it safer to cross to a farm-house a hundred yards 
farther on, where I might find shelter. Before I 
got there an officer of a passing division took me 
violently by the arm and asked who I was and what 
I was doing there? His eyes glittered savagely, 
and he as well as his men seemed to be fearfully 
excited. 

I said in a few words who I was, and showed one 
of my German permits. He had scarcely seen the 
many German stamps on it when he let me go 
and went on with his men. I then pinned on my 
coat two permits which had the greatest number 
of stamps, and in consequence had no further trou- 
ble. 

From the garret-window of the farm-house I 
followed the fierce battle for another half-hour, 
and saw that the Germans suffered enormous 
losses, but achieved no gains. At last I had to 
leave this place too, because shells fell again quite 
near to the house. I stayed another ten minutes 
near an ambulance, where they were quite unable 
to attend to the numerous wounded men. Most 
of them got an emergency dressing, and were ad- 
vised to go higher up and try to get better attention 
there. 

The battle I saw that day on the Yser was the 
beginning of the trench-war in that district. Many 
Belgian troops had dug themselves in, and later on 
this system was extended, in consequence of which 
the Belgian line there became impregnable. 

In those days German Headquarters gave con- 
tinuously the thoughtless order: u To Calais, to 



ON THE YSER 239 

Calais," and the Staff considered no difficulties, cal- 
culated no sacrifices, in order to achieve success. 

What these frenzied orders have cost in human 
lives History will tell later on. 

As soon as the Germans were near the coast 
they began to fortify it most formidably, in order 
to prevent eventual attempts at landing by hostile 
troops. Guns were soon mounted in the dunes, as 
I noticed during a trip which I made along the coast 
on Sunday, October 25th. 

Heyst was occupied by a small division of marines, 
although a few days before the garrison had been 
larger, but on Saturday evening all soldiers along 
the coast had been alarmed, and most of them were 
ordered to proceed to the battle-field near Nieuw- 
poort, where matters were at the time less favour- 
able for the Germans. Near the dyke I found five 
pieces of ordnance mounted, their mouths turned to- 
wards the sea, and that they were quite right in taking 
precautions was proved by the men-of-war riding on 
the distant horizon, without motion. 

In the centre of the town I was detained by three 
sailors, who called out an angry "Halt!" seized my 
bicycle, and made me a prisoner, "because I was an 
Englishman." Happily I could prove the contrary 
by my papers; and the permit of the Bruges com- 
mander to go about on a bicycle made them re- 
turn it. 

There was a general complaint in that district 
about the very arbitrary requisitions: for example, 
beds and blankets were extensively taken away from 
the convents, a thing against which the burgomaster 



240 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

of Bruges had already protested. Horses, cows, and 
other cattle were simply taken from the stables and 
the meadows, and paid for with paper promises. 

At Zeebrugge the conditions were not alarming. 
The houses of those who had gone away, however, 
had been damaged most terribly, and looted. Round 
the harbour guns were mounted, guarded by many 
sentries. I was at first forbidden to cross the canal 
bridge, but my excellent credentials at length made 
the sentries give in. Everything indicated that al- 
ready during the first days of the occupation the Ger- 
mans had begun to execute their plan to turn 
Zeebrugge into a station for submarines. 

The commander ruled with a strong hand. They 
issued not only the usual proclamations about intro- 
ducing German time, but the commander went even 
so far as to dictate at what hour the Holy Masses 
had to be said. In one of the proclamations I read, 
for example, that in future the Mass of six o'clock, 
Belgian time, had to be said at the same hour Ger- 
man time. Another proclamation said that skippers 
were forbidden to sail, and that all boats, including 
fisher-boats, had been seized. 

In the dunes near Ostend I came across a level 
field fenced off by the military, and in the centre I 
saw a large company of superior officers, and a ma- 
rine band. They were arranged round three big 
caves, into which just then had been lowered nine 
military officers and ordinary soldiers, who died in 
the nearly completed new Military Hospital of Os- 
tend in the neighbourhood. 

With a powerful voice, in order to drown the 
roar of the guns, a German parson delivered the 



ON THE YSER 241 

funeral oration, in which he spoke of the heroic 
conduct of the fallen men, who had sacrificed their 
lives for God, Kaiser, and Fatherland, and who, 
by God's inscrutable decree, were not destined to 
witness the final victory of the powerful German 
armies. The marines put their instruments to their 
mouths and played a slow funeral march. It was 
really very touching, and all the spectators came 
under the impression. 

Whilst yet the sweet strains of the music sounded 
over the dunes, the dull booming of the heavy field- 
artillery was heard constantly, and each boom 
meant the end of so many more human lives. The 
music went on, and the officers approached one 
after the other to throw a handful of sand on the 
corpses of their fallen comrades. I saw their nostrils 
tremble, saw them bite their lips nervously, saw tears 
in their eyes. 

The ceremony wound up with a short silent prayer 
offered at the request of the parson. 

The funeral had deeply moved me, and full of 
emotion I approached the edge of the graves. I 
saw three corpses in each of them, simply wrapped 
in a clean, white sheet. The only decorations were 
some green palm branches . . . the branches telling 
of peace. 

A little farther on I discovered a good many other 
mounds. A cross made of two little pieces of wood 
stood on each, amongst pots with flowers and small 
posies. On one of the crosses I saw written in 
pencil — 

"Captain Count Von Schwerin, 19,10.' 14." 



242 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

It was very interesting, because a humble private 
had been buried by his side. 

Of course I did not know this Count von Schwerin, 
but because I had just witnessed that funeral, and 
because it was so striking that men of every class 
were buried in the same manner, I reported what I 
saw to my paper. And, tragic fate, in consequence 
of this, the wife of the late Count heard for the first 
time of the death of her husband to whom she, a 
Netherland baroness, had been married at the be- 
ginning of the war. At the request of the family I 
made arrangements so that the grave might be rec- 
ognised after the war. 

In Ostend every place was full of wounded men, 
who all came walking from the battle-field in groups. 
Even in those days the fierce fights continued in con- 
sequence of the mad attempts to conquer Dunkirk 
and Calais. Great losses were suffered also by the 
enormous effect of the British naval guns, against 
which the German marines had mounted big guns in 
Ostend and farther along the coast, in order to keep 
the fleet at a distance. 

On the day of my visit to Ostend all sorts of 
conveyances had taken more than 3,000 wounded 
into the town. Peasants from the neighbourhood 
were compelled to harness their horses and transport 
the unfortunate men. Such a procession was dis- 
tressing to look at, as most men lay on open carts, 
only supported by a handful of newly cut straw, and 
long processions entered the town continuously. As 
reinforcements had arrived, the divisions of the Ger- 
man army which had suffered most came sometimes 



ON THE YSER 243 

from the front to the town, in order to have a rest, 
and then I saw a great deal of misery. 

Some of the soldiers were furious and others 
distressed on account of the great number of 
comrades left on the battle-field, while they hardly 
made any progress against the tenacity of the Allies. 
Those who were not seriously wounded were not 
even put up in hospitals or similar buildings, as there 
was only room for a few, although many private 
houses had been turned into supplementary hospitals. 
In the streets and the cafes I saw therefore hundreds 
of men in bandages. 

The condition of the civilian population was not 
too roseate. Most of them were away, and^ from 
those who had stayed everything was requisitioned. 
Staying in the town was not without danger, for 
two days before my visit it had been bombarded 
from noon to one o'clock by the British fleet, by 
which an hotel on the boulevard and some houses 
in the Rue des Flamands had been damaged. 

From Ostend I went a few days later to Thourout, 
a townlet to the north of the centre of the Yser- 
line I was accompanied by two Netherland 
colleagues whom I had met at Bruges. Everything 
was quiet there; the commander of the naval 
region, Admiral von Schroeder, had made himself 
slightly ridiculous, by informing the population m 
a proclamation that he had ordered the British citi- 
zens in the coastal region to leave the country, in 
order to protect them from their fellow-countrymen 
of the British fleet, who, by bombarding Ostend, had 
endangered their lives. 

As we left through the Gate-of-Bruges towards 



244 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

Thourout we were approached by a small military 
group, a few German soldiers who escorted about 
a dozen French and Belgian prisoners of war. Un- 
til that moment the street had been relatively quiet, 
but the inhabitants had scarcely heard that the 
u boys" came, when each ran into the street, forget- 
ting all fear of the "Duuts," and, breaking through 
the escort, they gave their "boys" an apple, or a pear, 
or a packet of cigarettes; so we saw a huge round 
of white bread fly through the air and land in the 
hands of one of the "boys." Such a thing touches 
one always, and even the escorting Germans, who 
at first were very indignant on account of the sud- 
den and unexpected intrusion, left the citizens alone 
with a generous gesture, as to say: "Well, have your 
way." 

The other eleven miles of the road to Thourout 
were quite deserted, and only in one place did I see 
a man working in the field. We only saw now and 
again a small escort which overtook us. From afar 
a trooper approached us; after having heard who 
we were, he told us that he had been on the way 
already three days and three nights from the trench 
lines, and how fierce the fighting was there. The 
German losses had been immense; he pointed to 
the unoccupied horse by his side, and said: "My 
chum, whose horse this was, fell also." He took 
a couple of strong pulls at his pipe, and, spurring 
his mount, rode off with a: "Keep well." 

At Thourout all convents and large buildings had 
been turned into hospitals, and the streets on both 
sides were full of big wagons. Hundreds of soldiers 
went off, and large convoys of carts were standing 



ON THE YSER 245 

in the meadows and on the roads, where officers 
and men were also practising riding. We were here 
in the rear, where there was a continuous going 
and coming from the front. Most soldiers were in 
a more or less excited mood; some did not hide 
their discontent, or sat musing dejectedly, asking 
themselves how these terrible days would end for 
them? Others again seemed to have got into a sort 
of frenzy in consequence of the continuous fighting 
and were not able to think logically at all. They 
told excited stories about the British whom they 
had killed, and chased away from the 42 cm. guns, 
who, according to them, were also at work in the 
swampy soil near Nieuwpoort, and also told about 
the snooting civilians, and those cursed Belgians, 
who cut open the bellies of their poor wounded, 
or sliced off their noses, hands, and ears. Of course 
pure fairy tales, but recited with much power of 
conviction. 

The question of lodgings brought also many dif- 
ficulties, for nobody wanted to, or could put us up. 
At last we succeeded at the Hotel 1'Union, where 
we first ate two roasted pigeons which were in- 
tended for a couple of officers, who would return 
in the evening from the front line. The three of 
us subsequently occupied one room, after having 
written on the door with chalk that Lieutenants 
So and So were staying there. For the landlady 
had told us that she was willing to put us up, but 
that the officers who returned every night from the 
front line were sure to turn us out. Indeed in the 
evening we heard heavy steps before our door, but 
after a voice had read out that Lieutenants So and 



246 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

So were passing the night there, they all went away 
again. 

The next morning the roar of the cannon woke 
us up, and soon we heard how the fighting stood, 
for when we went to the commander for a permit 
to go to Dixmuiden, the sympathetic major abso- 
lutely refused it, and haltingly added that he himself 
did not yet know how things stood there. Well, 
that was enough for us. At last he gave us a permit 
for Ostend, and we noticed very soon that now we 
were in the rear of the front. Whilst the guns were 
thundering on continuously and the shrapnel 
exploded in the air, we passed continuously large 
contingents, who actually formed one long line. 
The fight was going on only a few miles away, and 
incessantly the unhappy wounded came out of the 
small bypaths, stumbling on in their heavily muddied 
clothes. 

At the "Oud Slot van Vlaanderen," a large, ancient 
castle, there was a lot of hustle and bustle of car- 
riages and motor-cars. We had not gone another 
two hundred yards, when someone came after us 
and stopped us as suspects. We were escorted back 
to the castle, where a general command was estab- 
lished, and an aviators-division, with the motor-sec- 
tion attached to it. Happily our detention did not 
last long, and after examination we were released. 
On the road was an infernal noise, as the violent 
roar of the cannon was mixing with the roar of the 
wheels of the heavily-loaded convoys and the whirr 
and hooting of the army motors. Long processions 
of field-kitchens passed us also, most of them brand- 
new; but it was remarkable that all carts arranged 



ON THE YSER 247 

for a team of two were drawn with great difficulty 
by only one horse, and also that so many civilians 
have been compelled to act as drivers, or to gather 
the wounded. 

Constantly new and large transports of wounded 
came along the road, and here and there they were 
busy killing and burying wounded horses. The 
inhabitants locked themselves in their houses, and 
expected with great fear that any moment the 
military might arrive to claim their last horse or 
cow. The requisitions went on continuously, and 
the cattle were driven to the front in a long, desolate 
procession. 

As we went on towards Eerneghem French avi- 
ators were heroically reconnoitring above the Ger- 
man lines. One came from Dixmuiden and one 
from Nieuwpoort; both went to about half-way be- 
tween these two towns, where the centre of the battle 
was. The Germans kept up an unbroken artillery 
fire at those birds in the air. I saw quite near 
to them shells exploding right and left and discharg- 
ing dense, black clouds of smoke that disappeared 
slowly. There were moments when these black 
stretches of cloud seemed to form a frame round 
the aeroplanes, but the brave aviators knew how to 
escape from their assailants by all sorts of tricks. 
They came down to go up again unexpectedly, en- 
tirely changed their direction a moment later, and at 
last both disappeared undamaged. 

At Eerneghem we were not only stopped, but also 
sent back outright. It was considered extremely 
impudent on our side that we had dared to push 
on so far, because we were in the fighting-line. Even 



248 THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM 

the permit given by the commander of Thourout 
was of no avail. 

Back at Bruges we attended in the market the 
concert given by a German military band near the 
statues of Breydel and de Koninck. At the com- 
mander's office I witnessed a remarkable incident. 
A German post-official and a soldier had just brought 
in a decently dressed gentleman. The postman be- 
gan to relate that he was taking away the telephone 
instrument at that gentleman's house in order to fix 
it up at the commander's office, and that the gentle- 
man had said: "Why do you steal that instrument?" 
as the postman said this the commander jumped 
up in a fury, and called out: 

"What? What? Do you dare to call it steal- 
ing, what we Germans take here in Bruges?" 

"Sir, I do not understand German, but " 

"Not a word, not a word; you have insulted a 
German official, and according to the proclamation 
you know that that is severely punished. You are 
my prisoner." 

As he said this the commander put his hand 
roughly on the shoulder of the trembling man, who 
again said in French : 

"I have not used the word 'steal' at all, but let 
me explain the matter." 

"There is nothing to explain. Officer, you can 
take your oath on it?" 

"Certainly, captain." 

"Well" — this to a private — "you call the patrol; 
this man must be arrested." 

The unhappy man bowed his head trembling, and 



ON THE YSER 249 

with dull resignation he left the office, strongly 
escorted. 

The man who had this experience was Mr. Cop- 
pieters, the District Commissioner, a man who had 
given all his life to the service of society and the 
good of the community. 

Happily the burgomaster intervened, and, as I 
heard later, got him released. 

These are some of the things I could tell about 
my trips in the West of Belgium. By the end of 
November I was no longer allowed to move freely 
behind the front, although from time to time I 
visited small Belgian frontier-places. 

Yet I am glad to have witnessed the terrible fights 
near the Yser a couple of times where the German 
invasion was stopped, and where we may hope that 
soon victory may dawn on the brave Belgian army. 



H 94 89 






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